Noel, Noel
by Chaltab
Summary: A Legendverse Story. Danny is fed up with his parents arguing at Christmas, and seeks advice from someone named after that holiday. Too bad he hates Christmas too. Though a hero teamup to defeat the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come might be a good idea.
1. Of Christmas Here and Now

**Author's Note**: This story is set in the Legendverse, which means it will reference other stories from the past by both myself and Legend Maker, starting with her story _Danny's Inferno _and my story _To Charm a Ghost. _However reading those is not essential to understanding this one—the references are simply Easter Eggs to establish continuity.

* * *

**Noel, Noel**  
**Chapter One: Of Christmas Here and Now**

Sam grimaced the whole time Paulina was stringing up the banner over the gym entrance. Friday afternoon on the last day of school of the semester saw many preparations for the Holiday-themed dance the following Saturday.

"Of Christmas Here and Now?" Sam mocked. "Come on, Paulina, I don't even celebrate Christmas and I know that's not how it goes."

Paulina, in unusually good spirits, stepped down from her stepladder and explained, "I know that, but people kept getting confused and thinking 'Of Christmas Present' meant _gift_ instead of 'the Christmas that is not the one before this one or the one after this one.' That's why we changed it."

"People got confused," Sam repeated.

"Yes."

"Including you?"

Paulina nodded. "Including me_…** Hey**_! That was so mean of you."

Sam turned and walked away. "I'd never miss an opportunity to prove your inferiority, Paulina."

She joined Tucker as they left the gym and headed toward the office of The Enemy. "I still can't believe what Danny did," Tucker said.

"Unless Lancer's in the holiday spirit," Sam agreed, "his Christmas goose is cooked.**  
**

* * *

** Danny Phantom Theme Goes Here  
**

* * *

The chill in Assistant Principal Lancer's office vaguely reminded the young man of his therapy sessions with the ex-school therapist Penelope Spectra, though this chill was for an entirely different reason, as was this visit to the office of his most hated human enemy.

"Daniel Fenton." Lancer spoke as if they'd never met before. Sure, this was the first time he'd been in trouble with Lancer this semester, but whatever happened to the Lancer that knew Danny_ could_ pass that blasted poetry class and then made it a reality?

"Yes, Mr. Lancer?" Danny said, hanging his head. He knew the act that had him brought here was his own fault and nobody else's. He hadn't even used his ghost powers to conceal it this time.

Lancer sipped his hot tea and pulled his coat more tightly around his body. The electric heat was still out at Casper High, and the thermometer outside was reading 20 Fahrenheit. The schools ancient coal heat system left much to be desired too.

Finally, Lancer's voice made Danny snap back to reality. "Will you please explain to me, why you, of all students, elected to punch-out Nathan Michaels during PE this afternoon?"

Danny looked away. "He was annoying me with Christmas carols. He knows I don't like Christmas and was singing them just to get on my nerves. I know what I did was wrong; I just lost control of my temper."

Lancer grimaced. "Well, seeing that it's the last day of school this semester, I don't suppose I can ask you to show up for Saturday school, and detention isn't severe enough for this kind of behavior. So you're getting off free. For now." Lancer turned, but Danny saw his reflection in the window begin to smirk. "I'll decide your final punishment when you return from Christmas break, but in the interim, I want you to write a thirteen-hundred word essay on anger management. I'm sure your brilliant sister can help you with that."

"That's it?" Danny asked, raising a cautious eyebrow.

"I could make it two thousand words if you wish," Lancer said gravely.

Danny's eyes widened and he wildly shook his head no. "No thank you, sir, 1300 is plenty. I'll see you in January!"

Danny vanished out the door, leaving Lancer alone with his thoughts**  
**

* * *

Outside Lancer's office, Danny found Sam and Tucker waiting for him, and they matched his stride as he tried to get out of the school building as quickly as possible.

"So, how many years in purgatory did Lancer sentence you to?" Sam asked him as the exited the building.

"I don't know yet," Danny said. "But I gotta write an essay over the break."

Tucker winced. "Ouch. Thirteen hundred words?"

"Yup. I take it you've had some experience in the matter?"

"Oh no, not me," Tucker said. "But the legends spread. They say Lancer gives the unlucky number thirteen (times a hundred) words to the students he really doesn't like hoping something horrible will befall them over the break."

"_Befall_?" Sam said with a chuckle. "Since when do you major in melodrama, Tucker?"

"We're sophomores, Sam," Tucker replied. "Little too early to be thinking of college majors, don'tcha think?"

Sam sighed. "It was a metaphor. Anyway, Danny, I think Lancer's right to be harsh. There was no point in punching out Nathan. He can get creepy, but you need to chill out."

"Yeah." Tucker agreed. "I thought you decided to go easier on those of us who actually _like_ the holidays last year."

"I know, I know," Danny said. "It's just, well, **that** time of year again. You know. I already think I heard my parents gearing up for _the argument_ this morning."

Sam shook her head. "You mean they still go on about that? Why is it that people in their forties insist on acting like they're four?"

Danny turned as the trio passed by his house and walked up the stairs. "Well guys, I'll see you around," he said. "Jazz insists that me and her go through and start classifying my enemies by level of power."

Sam gave him a knowing smirk. "Have fun, Danny. And for what it's worth, Merry Christmas."

"Yeah," Danny said, his voice low and unenthusiastic. "Happy Hanukkah. See you around.**  
**

* * *

Days passed and Christmas Eve arrived, but Maddie and Jack still refused to learn their lesson. Every morning they got into it again. Danny thought for a moment that he'd rather them argue in rhyme like last year.

_I've said it before, I'll say it again: a sleigh cannot travel the globe at Mach Ten._ At least that had a catchy rhythm to it.

He promptly began to doubt his sanity.

In Danny's room, he and Jazz poured over the computer files of his enemies.

"Okay," Jazz said. "We've classified you as a Delta-Class ghost." Most of your enemies are Epsilon or Delta class, but with exceptions. Skulker…"

"Definitely Gamma-class," Danny said with a nod. "And Vlad…?"

"He's more powerful than Skulker." Jazz typed the word _Beta_ into his entry.

"Then who classifies as Alpha?" Danny wondered out loud.

Jazz looked at him knowingly and opened another file, and Danny's fiery-haired doppelganger appeared on the screen. "Your other self from the future."

Danny groaned. He didn't really care to be reminded of Dark Danny or Dan or Phantom or whatever they were supposed to call him. "Right. And I can think of two Omegas right off the bat. Flammadea…"

"And Pariah Dark," Jazz finished. She updated both files accordingly.

"I think Clockwork also counts as an Omega," Danny said. "Even though he's not really an enemy."

"Updated," Jazz said. "That's nearly everyone you've faced so far. I'm still not sure what to classify Anubis as since he was…"

The look on Danny's face made Jazz pause.

"Yeah," she said contritely. "Better not bring that up."

Jazz left him and went to her own room, and Danny collapsed and fell back on the bed. He almost drifted off to sleep, when he was suddenly awakened by the sound of something crashing into his window. Danny opened it and looked out to see Dash Baxter and several other kids that either were in the popular crowd or followed it like sheep standing there with rocks and snowballs in hand.

"What's going on!?" Danny shouted out at them.

"Your stupid parents, Fen-Turd!" Dash hollered up at him. "They're at the mall _again, _arguing about whether Santa Claus is real _again. _And our parents refuse to take us to the mall for last minute shopping because _they _can't put up with the constant arguing with megaphones. So we're gonna take it out on your hide by wailing on… _your hide!"_

"Ever consider having Paulina take you?" Danny shot back, bitter. "Oh, that's right, she can't because she's so _stupid and shallow_ she _failed her driver's test_ because she didn't know the difference between a yield sign and a stop sign!"

Danny turned from his window and shot one of his model space shuttles with an ectoplasmic energy beam to take out some frustration.

"You come down here and say that!" Dash yelled from out front.

Danny looked back out the window and shook his head. "I think I'll have the police say it for me." He waved the phone at them, though he expected them to break up before he had to use it.

"The cops are all at the mall trying to break up your parents' fight!" Dash shouted back. Though from his tone of voice it was clear he wasn't totally certain about it.

"Well I guess I'll have to send them the recordings on my dad's security cameras," Danny said. "I'm sure they'll get around to arresting you eventually."

Dash looked uncertain and the threat of such measures caused the crowd to thin considerably. Still, Danny got the sense they weren't going to let up before the night was over, even if they'd have to find other methods of harassing him.

Danny decided he'd never be more grateful for a ghost attack—but since it was Christmas Eve, the Ghost Truce was in effect and he was out of luck. Danny looked across his room to the lock box lying on his dresser, and phased his hand through it. Inside was the Titan Com he'd been given after his battle with Jinx last November. He clasped in his hand around the device for a moment before deciding what to do.

Danny Fenton transformed into Danny Phantom and phased into Jazz's room.

"Danny, what are you doing? There's not a ghost breaking the Truce is there?"

"No," he said. "There's a mob of angry fifteen-year-olds outside that wants to wail on my hide for what our parents are currently doing at the mall."

"Danny you wouldn't think of attacking them…" Jazz said, putting her psychology book down and standing up to look her hovering brother in the eyes.

"Of course not. I just came in here to tell you to I'll be spending the night out of town. I'm sick of Christmas—even if I learn to like the holiday itself nobody will ever teach our parents to stop arguing about it."

"This is a bit rash," Jazz said. "You want me to talk to Dash?"

"I didn't say it was Dash." Danny blinked.

Jazz smiled. "You didn't say it wasn't."

Danny nodded, but continued to scowl. "You can do what you want. I'm leaving."

The troubled hero phased through the floor and into the basement where the Specter Speeder rested. Danny extended his intangibility and invisibility fields to encompass the whole Speeder and then took off through the side of the house.

Destination: Jump City, Florida.


	2. Of Christmas Yet To Come

Author's Note: The original character Teen Titan Noel "Savior" Collins was created by Legend Maker and her brother. I own nothing. Jump City is in Florida in the Legendverse due to Legend Maker getting her oceans confused.

* * *

**Noel, Noel  
Chapter Two: Of Christmas Yet To Come  
**

Danny 'parked' the Specter Speeder in the clouds above Jump City—he knew that Titans Tower had defenses and those defenses probably weren't going to let the Speeder fly in unscathed. Danny turned intangible and flew out of the Speeder down towards Titan's Island, becoming invisible as well.

He only hoped that the Titan he'd planned on seeing lived up to his namesake.

Danny hovered into the room of Savior, the sixth teen to join the team. It was instantly clear that he shared the room with his girlfriend Raven, judging by the dark décor that adorned the shelves and walls, and the fact that there were two dressers—one the pinnacle of practical functionality and the other exactly the opposite, decorated in ornate gothic design.

The young man himself, a tall youth of around twenty-two who wore a white jacket and white pants over a blue T-shirt—all of it disguised body armor— framing a complete package of spikey white hair, sat typing on a computer at the far end of the room, oblivious to Danny's presence. Or so he thought.

"Hello, rookie," Savior said without even looking over his shoulder or missing a single key on the keyboard.

Danny goggled, becoming visible and letting his shoulders droop. "Aw, how'd you know I was even hear, let alone it was me?"

"Raven sensed you coming." Savior stated plainly. He saved and closed the file before Danny had a chance to read it, and turned to regard the rookie. "Hm, the emblem on your chest is new," Savior observed.

"I knew it! I knew there was something Sam wasn't telling me about this thing!"

Savior just regarded him very oddly. "You don't remember not having an emblem?"

"Long story."

"Fair enough. Mind explaining why you thought trespassing at our Tower on Christmas Eve would be a good idea? Beast Boy already sedated himself because he couldn't wait for tomorrow."

"Actually," Danny said, "I came here to talk to you."

"I thought I was an—"

"Water under the bridge," Danny said, referring to the epithet Danny had labeled Savior with at their last face-to-face meeting.

"Considering you were the one who insulted me, I think that's for me to decide." Savior turned and walked to the bed, pulling out his Titan Com. "Robin, it's okay. It's just the rookie—Danny Phantom."

"That's what I meant when I said water under the bridge," Danny muttered.

"What does he want?" Robin's voice came over the communicator.

"Apparently he just wants to talk—about The Lord knows what."

Robin nodded. "Considering what he went through, I'd like to talk to him myself. Otherwise, if you trust him, hear him out."

Savior sighed. Occasional co-Leadership or not, Robin usually got the final say in things.

"So what is so important that you traveled 2000 miles just to talk to me?"

"Well," Danny said, "I just needed to get away from my parents for a while."

"That's… understandable," Savior smirked.

"And, well, this might be broken logic, but I generally get in a foul mood around Christmas, and since your real name means Christmas…" Danny gave an awkward shrug. "Well, I guess I thought you might have some sage wisdom."

Savior then did something that greatly unnerved Danny, something Danny had never, ever seen Savior do before on TV or in person. Something that made Danny's spine tingle…

He laughed.

Savior actually laughed—not just a bitter chuckle—Savior let out a stifled but genuine belly laugh. And the world ended as hell froze over and the pigs flew away. No, no, just kidding. But Danny wouldn't have been surprised.

Still, that laugh was so unexpected, so unnerving that Danny wasn't sure what to think. "Um… Are you okay, Noel?"

Savior looked up and shook his head. "Sorry."

The apology echoed in the empty room for a minute, before Danny broke the silence. "What was so funny?"

"You've come to the wrong person," Savior said, getting up and walking to the door, and motioning for the younger man to follow. "Why do you think I'm shut up in my room working on boring computer stuff?"

"Don't tell me you hate Christmas too!" Danny blurted.

"I don't hate Christmas." Noel opened the door and led Danny through Titans Tower into the ops room, explaining as they went. "I just hate the way it makes people act. I hate the fact that some people will literally trample an old woman to death in order to get their spoilt brat a shiny new WiiBox 580—or whatever the heck is coming out this year. I hate that people become so obsessed with themselves and what they _get _that they utterly miss that the point of the holiday is about what we _give._"

In ops, Beast Boy and Cyborg were playing their GameStation470 in glorious high-definition and drinking something that looked like Eggnog mixed with way too much artificial sweetener.

"Dude, you totally missed me!" Beast Boy celebrated as Cyborg's _Cogs of Conflict_ character missed him with the rocket launcher. Beast Boy returned fire with his shotgun and blew Cyborg's character away.

As the game ended, Cyborg and Beast Boy rose from their seats and greeted Danny Phantom. Cyborg had met the young halfa during his previous encounter with the Titans, but Beast Boy had not. "Nice to meet you, Phantom," the green teen greeted. Beast Boy was the only Titan who could still validly be called a teen, and wore it as a badge of honor.

"Hi," Danny greeted him, shaking Beast Boy's hand with the enthusiasm of one still relatively new to the hero scene. He looked away and hovered over towards Savior. "Well, do I get to stay here until Christmas is over?"

Savior sighed. "Phantom, think about it for a minute. Your parents may be dense sometimes, but they're going to notice you're gone, and they're going to be worried about why. What are you gonna tell them? 'Sorry, mom and dad, I sneaked out and went to spend the night with the third most prestigious group of superheroes in the world'?"

"I'll think of something. I'll tell them I was at Tucker's house."

Beast Boy shook his head. "Man, if Elastigirl and Mento taught me anything, it's that parents check their kids' stories. Unless you wanna tell them about your powers, you need to get home."

Danny glanced at the clock. 3PM. Ugh, time seemed to be going so slow. Maybe he could have Clockwork just send him ahead two days. Of course that would still raise alarm in his parents.

Cyborg pulled a large jug of milk out of the fridge and began drinking it, drawing a grimace from Savior. "Why exactly do you want to stay here so much?" Cyborg asked. "What about your parents makes Christmas so unbearable there?"

"Every year since I've been born, they argue from the start of December to the end of the year about whether Santa Claus is real. My dad insists that he is; my mom is too scientific to even consider the possibility. So they go at it for days on end, driving everyone crazy."

Noel and Cyborg facevaulted, but Beast Boy offered a suggestion. "Dude, you should totally haunt their argument. They can't argue scared."

"No way," Danny said. "One, my parents hunt ghosts to dissect them. Two, I've barely been able to keep people convinced that Danny Phantom is a hero. The last thing I need is another round of being public enemy number one."

This last admission caused Noel to scowl. "You're publicly going by Danny Phantom now? Isn't that a bit risky given how similar it is to your real name?" His tone was one of unveiled disapproval.

About this time, elevator door at the end of the ops room slid open and none other than Robin himself came in, carrying a couple of large wrapped gifts and dropping them by the Christmas tree. Though he completely ignored the newcomer at first, he turned and extended a green-gloved hand to him after depositing the fits. "Phantom, I presume."

Danny just stared at Robin's hand as though it belonged to Yuri Gargarin himself himself. "You're… Robin. Can I have your autograph?"

Robin frowned, but then gave the younger hero a light smirk. "At least you didn't ask me for Batman's autograph.**  
**

* * *

A key fact one must remember about the young man given the birth name Noel Collins but known to most of the world as Savior: he cannot stand stupidity, he cannot tolerate ignorance. Shortly after hearing of Maddie and Jack Fenton's yearly argument, Savior resolved to end it personally. No two grown adults should be allowed to engage in such public displays of stupidity, Especially year after year, with no resolution, over and over again, he reasoned.

So with Robin's help, Savior contacted the JLU Watchtower and convinced Mr. Terrific to teleport both Danny and Savior to Amity Park Mall. Danny had already set the auto pilot on the Specter Speeder to return it home, but teleportation would get the two heroes there faster than the Speeder and less conspicuously than the Titans' jet craft. In the parking lot, Savior and Danny found a private place, where Savior detransformed from his tall, spiky-white haired persona into a slightly shorter version of himself with long red hair, pulled back in a ponytail.

"It's not all it's cracked up to be," Savior said when he saw what he mistook for wonder in Danny's eyes. "I have to take at least two showers every day if I want to keep both bodies clean."

Danny shook his head. "Noel, I can transform too. I was really just curious how a beneficial nervous system mutation also translates into the ability to conceal a second functional body in a space-time pocket and call it up at will."

This only drew a dismissive glare from Noel.

He and Danny entered the mall to see a writhing mass of people on both levels, scurrying about with last minute shopping, and most of them trying to avoid the crowd massed around the Santa Claus booth in the middle of the mall. Typically, that was where Maddie and Jack had taken up their argument yet again—right where the young children would be the most effected.

"If there's no Santa Claus," Jack said with a smug smile, "then who hired this guy to impersonate him at our local shopping establishment?" Jack pulled at the beard of the fake Santa next to him, causing some of the younger children in the audience to burst into red-faced tears.

"Actually, I freelance," the Santa said in a surprisingly high-pitch voice.

Danny buried his face in his palm.

"If it makes you feel any better," Noel began… "I'd trade my dad for yours any day of the week."

The argument only got louder, and that only made Noel get fed up faster. "Come with me, Danny."

Noel found a locked janitor's closet and made sure there were no security cameras watching, then used his talent—the Shimmer, a nervous system mutation that manifested as a semi-sentient energy rope that could extend from any point on his body—to pick the lock. A flash of light lit the inside of the closet, and Savior emerged.

Danny followed the Titan as he walked back out into the mall where Santa's ears were suffering the brunt of Maddie and Jack's argument.

"If Santa has to visit every house in one night, he'd run out of time. Night is too short for a visit to every home in the world!" Maddie's common sense logic again came with uncommon vitriol for her husbands 'position' on the issue.

"Santa can freeze time!" Jack shouted back. "Time has no meaning for my Patron Saint Nicholas!"

Suddenly, Savior leapt atop the raised platform where the two were fighting and gave both of them a withering stare. "End this. Now."

"Look, it's Gregor!" Jack smiled broadly. "Tell us how everyone in Hungary believes in Santa Claus and how I'm right in this argument."

"Gregor?" Savior muttered confused.

"No," Maddie said. "From his cynical, world-weary, withering stare it is clear that _Elliot_ here is an intelligent—albeit deceitful and poorly dressed—American who does _not_ believe in Santa Claus."

Savior gave her a stare that said he was about to rip Maddie's arms off. "Who is Elliot?" Savior spat. Then, deciding that he didn't care who Elliot was, Savior lashed out two strands of Shimmer that tore the two megaphones from the Fentons' hands and held both of them up to his mouth.

_"EVERYONE HERE WHO DOESN'T **CARE **WHETHER SANTA IS REAL AND JUST WANTS TO FINISH THEIR CHRISTMAS SHOPPING IN **PEACE** SHOULD IGNORE THESE **TWO IMBECILES** WITH THE IQ OF A **JAR OF MAYONNAISE** AND LEAVE THEM BE."_

Savior finished his tirade by snapping both megaphones in two with the Shimmer and hurling them into one of the mall's penny fountains across the atrium.

Danny watched Titan swing away, and moments later, Noel, back in civilian form, appeared near Danny. "Well, my work here is done."

The younger hero, however, was not so satisfied. "Man, that wasn't funny at all. My parents may be embarrassing, but I don't appreciate you insulting them like that."

"If people want to repeatedly act like retarded nine year olds, and in public at that, then the public has every right to react as they see fit, and we're part of that public." Savior said, perhaps more tersely then needed. "You requested a solution, I provided it."

"What are you talking about?" Danny blurted. "I just wanted to spend the night at the Tower—_you volunteered_ to publicly humiliate my parents."

"Danny, your parents were humiliating themselves. What I did was take that, and actual make some hay out of it. You think it would be any less humiliating if they were arrested? Or thrown out to cheers? I doubt it, but they would have learned nothing from that. But this? Maybe at least it will penetrate your mother's skull how utterly pointless this argument is. Unless too much of your dad has rubbed off on her. Sorry Danny, he's a good guy, but he's about four items short of a picnic."

Danny turned to walk away glared back at Savior over his shoulder. "You know what, I take back that _water under the bridge_ thing, Noel. You really are a—"

**_KRAKABOOOM!_**

Danny's insult was cut off by a massive thunderclap that echoed throughout the mall, shattering the glass skylights. A cacophony of screams started as the shoppers began fleeing throughout the mall, and green lightning arced through the upper section. And Danny gasped as a strong burst of ghost sense escaped his mouth.

"No! What about the Truce!" Danny shouted.

"What truce?" Savior asked.

"On Christmas all ghosts share a Truce—even with me. No ghosts are supposed to fight, and no ghosts are supposed to attack Earth until the twenty-sixth of December."

Noel ran behind a column and once again transformed into Savior. "Sounds like someone didn't get that memo."

Then, the foe revealed himself—a circle of green fire erupted in the center of the food court, acting as a portal from the Ghost Zone. And the being that emerged from it was like the Grim Reaper, cloaked in black, its face permanently hidden in the deepest shadows.

Danny made sure nobody was watching him. "I'm going ghost!"

The white rings slid up and down his body, cloaking him in his trademark hero costume; and Danny blasted off into action, firing a series of ectoplasmic energy beams at his foe. But the specter just deflected the shots with his hand, and when Danny tried to follow up with a punch to the face, the villain batted him down with a single hand…

Danny Phantom crashed into the ground next to Savior, and stood up. "You know who this is?" Savior asked. "It looks like Death."

"No way," Danny said. "Death is totally a hot gothic babe. I don't know _who_ this is."

The Ghost before them waved his hand again, and more green fireballs flared into existence and flew out, striking seemingly random places in the mall, though it became clear after a few shots that the creature was aiming directly at Christmas decorations.

"A ghost is wrecking the Christmas stuff at the mall?" Danny said. "Why does this have to be so bittersweet?"

Savior gave him a soul-searing glare. "Stop praising the bad guys and do something. You know ghosts better than I do. If you think you can keep him busy, I'll handle the crowd. Deal?"

Danny nodded. "Deal."

The Phantom blasted off to do his thing as Savior swung away on a Shimmer strand to do his.

Danny flew towards the Ghost again, again, deflecting the attacks back towards their source, though the fire probably hurt him more than it did its creator. Danny tried to close enough for one of his more damaging attacks like the ghost stinger, but every time he came close, a powerful chill wind blasted him away.

The Ghost turned and demolished a massive statue of Frosty the Snowman and then shattered a stand selling Nativity woodcarvings.

"What is your problem?!" Danny shouted. "You can hate Christmas all you want, but I _won't_ let you hurt people."

Danny unleashed a Ghostly Wail, shattering glass and blasting the enemy back towards the nearest Hot Topic. It was just as short blast, just enough to do the job, though. The last thing he needed was to exhaust himself.

But the Ghost exploded from inside the store, demolishing the cheaply made, overpriced clothing and sassy emo teen punk gear in the process.

"Okay, you can smash Santa and frag Frosty all you want, but when you start messing with Hot Topic, you're on my hate list," Danny charged up a double-handed ectoplasm attack and hurled it at the Ghost…

But the Ghost blasted away, then fired a couple more of his trademark fireballs at Danny, even as Danny's attack further demolished the establishment he was trying to avenge.

Danny dodged the fireballs, and then was surprised when a nutcracker flew in out of nowhere and slammed into the Ghost. The Ghost and Danny both turned and saw Savior, standing with the Shimmer ready to attack, and the mall now deserted behind him.

"Remember to conserve energy and take the path of least resistance _and_ least collateral damage" Savior coached. "In other words, no screaming with that weird sonic cry unless it's absolutely necessary."

"Ghostly Wail," Danny corrected.

Savior facepalmed, even as Danny and he regrouped. "Ugh, do all of your attacks have to have 'creative' names?"

"I didn't name it…" Danny said, but then decided explaining who _did_ would just be confusing.

By this time, the Ghost had finished destroying the Nutcracker statue that Savior had tossed at him and raised his hand again…

And another portal appeared in front of him, this one sucking everything, as well as everyone. Danny tried to fly against the flow of the portal, and Savior tried to anchor himself with a Shimmer strand. But before he could find a suitable anchor, a shard of broken glass flew by and slashed the Shimmer—its greatest weakness.

Pain wracked Savior's body like a million tiny pinpricks on every nanometer of his skin, and he lost all strength and dexterity in his body as it fell into the Ghost's portal.

And despite his efforts to escape, Danny knew he had to go to, because he had to rescue Savior from an afterlife he wasn't quite ready for.

Danny turned, his eyes flaring green as he plunged in.


	3. In The Zone

**Noel, Noel  
Chapter Three: In The Zone**

"Wake up, Noel. Wake up!"

Noel blinked a couple times before finally snapping back into consciousness. Well, snapping might not have been the best word, as even with his eyes open, Savior's head was still fuzzy. And he was growing mildly nauseous, feeling as though he was weightless and anchored to nothing…

Then he sat up… and flipped all the way over, rolling through the air with no support… He _was_ weightless and anchored to nothing. Suddenly, two hands clasped his shoulders and steadied him, and Savior turned to see Phantom hovering next to him—and behind Danny and all around, there was a void of mismatched colors swirling in a nebula of nothing…

"Where are we, Phantom?" Savior asked, trying to keep his inner ear stable. Even despite his tendency to use the Shimmer to swing through the streets like Spider-Man, Noel was having trouble here. Even when he'd been violating Marvel's copyrights, he'd still felt the effects of gravity.

"This would be the Ghost Zone," Danny said. "Welcome to my enemies' home turf."

Noel flung his arms through the air, twisting a few more times before finally righting himself. "How can you tolerate this?" He started to list a bit more, but Danny stabilized him.

"Never been a problem for me," he said.

Savior muttered a few choice words and then tried to swim forward… "Okay… How do we get out of here, then?"

Danny glanced off into the distance and shrugged. "I can't say. The Ghost Zone is enormous and I have no idea where in it we are. This section isn't on any of what we've mapped so far. In most parts of the Ghost Zone, humans fall as if there was gravity."

"So we're trapped in another dimension with no way out, and the fact that I'm not plummeting endlessly downward is our only consolation."

Danny shook his head. "There's a way out, we just have to _find _it. But otherwise, yeah, that's the size of it."

Suddenly, a massive blast of green flame slammed into Danny and sent him careening backwards. Savior tried to swim after him and simultaneously look the other way, and ended up only turning end over end, rolling through the Ghost Zone like a cartwheel. But he at least got a spiraling view of their attacker—the same one as before.

"Typical," Noel muttered.**  
**

* * *

Danny had barely recovered from the attack when he first eyed the Ghost that trashed Amity Park Mall. Danny charged up two energy beams and hurled them at the Ghost, but it deflected them with a scythe that materialized from nowhere. 

"Are you sure this isn't Death?" Savior asked from his cart-wheeling position twenty feet from Danny.

The Ghost waved its hands again, and several more portals appeared in fabric of the Ghost Zone. Danny thought about blasting towards them, but several of them began spewing forth objects. Human-world objects, Danny realized, and all of them Christmas decorations.

With a bit of a start, Danny realized that one of them was the famous giant Christmas tree in front of Rockefeller Plaza every year—which caused Danny to wonder what the ho-ho-heck this ghost was up to.

Being the generally non-confrontational (in other words nerdy) guy that Danny was, he tried asking the Ghost first.

"Who are you and what do you want!?" Danny demanded, aiming another double-handed ecto-blast at his foe.

The Ghost 'looked' (as much as something without eyes can be said to do so) directly at Danny, and pointed at the Christmas decorations…

Then promptly demolished them bit by bit with his scythe, including the Rockefeller tree.

"You hate the way the city of New York is decorated?" Savior snarked, finally having made is way to Danny.

The Ghost responded by vaporizing several more Christmas decorations and then blasted off into the infinite realms of the Ghost Zone at mach-ten.

"How fast can you fly?" Savior asked, amazed by the Ghost's speed.

"One-twelve," Danny muttered.

"Rookie," Savior said bitterly.

Danny clinched his fists and turned to Savior, leaning forward and looking the Titan in the eyes. "Rookie!? You don't even know how to keep yourself from turning end over end, here, Noel. You don't know a thing about how to get around in this place, or who is who and what is what. Here, _you_ are the rookie."

Savior leaned back and allowed himself to drift away a bit, giving Danny a bitter smile. "I think you're right," he said. "Remember that from this point on. We all have room to improve, even me—even Batman. The difference is that you take the epithet as a personal insult where I take it as an accurate assessment of my abilities—when and if it is."

Danny didn't stop glaring at the Titan until the smile had vanished. When it did, Danny continued. "It's still Christmas Eve, unless we've been flung into the future or the past. Our best bet is to find some other ghosts—ones that aren't violating the Truce, and see if we can get any information or help from this Ghost that just seems to want to ruin Christmas for everyone."

He turned intangible and flew towards Savior in order to overshadow him—but then found himself right off the Titan like he would a brick wall when solid, a flash of light disorienting him. "Ouch, man, what gives?"

"Did you just try to possess me?" Savior's right eyebrow was raised and the left lowered—Danny read it as confusion and a hint of mistrust.

"I was going to overshadow you to fly us both around instead of watching you struggle like a quadruple-amputee at a swimming competition."

"Listen to me carefully, Phantom," Savior said, his eyes growing fierce. "I do not like to be controlled. I do not like to be possessed, and I do not want you inhabiting my body without my permission. Do you understand?"

Danny hovered back and nodded. For the first time, Savior kind of seemed… like a threat to him.

"How did you block me out?"

Savior reached into his shirt and pulled out a pendant attached to a necklace. "Something Raven gave me—formerly the property of Navan, the man who sold Jinx the Amulet of Roasha. It stops ghosts from possessing me, though I never expected that'd be something I had to worry about from you."

"I'm sorry. I should have warned you first."

"You should have _asked permission,_ Phantom. Maybe in your little microcosm you can possess random people at will, but if you ever want to join the superhero community at large, then things like that can easily be taken as an act of hostility."

"Sorry," Danny repeated.

Savior scowled, but removed the amulet and placed it in his pocket, then detransformed into his normal state. "The Shimmer will be less likely to resist your control if I stay in this body, and if we run into any of your rogue's gallery that the rest of the Titans and I fought during the battle with Sizzle… well, I don't want them to recognize me."

Danny nodded, turned intangible, and possessed Noel; then the two blasted off in the direction the powerful ghost had flown.

* * *

After a while of flying, with no Ghost in site, Danny finally began to see some objects and doors that were remotely familiar… And Noel's body suddenly got heavier as they passed over a massive floating island—the one where Aragon and Dorathea's castle rested… 

And oddly, very familiar music was emanating up from the hold. Danny flew Savior's body down for a closer look, and as he looked around, it became obvious things had changed for the better—at least on the surface. The homes were no longer medieval thatch-roofed houses but more like Victorian-era buildings, and the streets were no longer patrolled by knights, but by soldiers with guns.

"Still totalitarian, but at least there's some semblance of personal hygiene," Danny thought aloud.

He landed Savior's body near the gate to the castle, and approached the ghost soldiers guarding the entrance.

"Do you have an invitation?" one of them asked him.

Danny stepped out of Noel's body, leaving the Titan to collapse into a heap next to him. "Well, no, but that singing sounds familiar…"

Noel stood up groggily. "It sounds like that Ember McLean ghost…"

The derogatory use of the word _ghost_ drew a glare from the soldier, and then Noel turned and gave him a Shimmer-encased thumbs up to simulate a ghostly aura. "Which is of course my species. I'm not alive in any way, shape, or form. At all."

"Listen," Danny said to the soldier ghost. "There is a ghost out there breaking the Ghost Truce, and I don't know who it is or what I'm up against, but I know it is attacking the human world."

The soldier glanced down, as if thinking deeply for a minute, then spoke. "I will escort you to an audience with Queen Dorathea. This way, please." He hovered off.

"Queen Dorathea?" Savior asked. "She's not related to Pariah Dark is she?"

"Last time I faced Dora, she was a princess under the thumb of her jerky older brother," Danny said. "Things have changed a lot, I guess. Wait, how did you know about Pariah Dark?"

"You think a town disappearing into another dimension doesn't make national news?" Savior responded.

"Good point," Danny said with a shrug.

The soldier ghost finally led them to an area of the castle where the music was getting much louder—and it was most definitely Ember's voice. The song sounded like _Oh, Come Let Us Adore Him _in a foreign language…

"Do you recognize this?" Danny asked. "It sounds like—"

"It's _Adeste Fideles, _Danny. The Latin version of the song."

"Strange."

The ghost soldier pushed open a large wooden door at the end of one of the castle's halls, and the three stepped in to what could only be described as a banquet fit for kings—or more accurately, dead kings. Ectoplasmic food topped a table that stretched the length of a the room, and the room itself was as long as a barge and probably just as wide as one.

And it was full of ghosts—Danny Phantom's enemies and allies alike, surrounding the table eating the food and celebrating the season… it seemed.

"Would you look at that!" Skulker bellowed as Danny approached, throwing his cup of lager into the air, but holding onto the handle so only the liquid went airborne. "It's the ghost child!"

All heads in the building immediately turned to see Danny sanding with the soldier at the open door.

Danny blinked. "Um.. hi, guys."

Suddenly, Dorathea was right beside him—except now she wore a crown of a queen instead of the tiara of a princess. "This is a most unexpected pleasure, young Daniel. You were not invited, but verily you are welcome here—especially on the night of the Truce."

"'Verily'?" Savior raised an eyebrow.

"People expect it," explained Dora. "And who might you be?"

"Oh me?" Noel said casually? "I'm new here. Just freshly dead. On… Wednesday. I'm so new to this whole ghost thing I don't even have a complete aura or know how to fly yet."

Dora regarded him suspiciously. "Interesting. Your name is?"

Savior blinked. "Bill. My name is Bill Willingham."

At this, Sidney Poindexter perked up. "Good golly gosh, you mean the famed comic book writer? What a tragedy, your parting. Though it is an honor to meet you."

Danny facepalmed, and elbowed Noel in the side, and the Titan found himself unable to avoid sweatdropping. "He's not _that_ Bill Willingham," Danny said. "No relation at all."

"He may not be related," Skulker said, a sudden edge to his tone. "But his voice sounds familiar."

Ember's eyes perked up as if she'd been thinking the same thing, and Technus 2.0 leaned forward. "The updates to my operating system have damaged the specific foils, but I know this voice print is somewhere in my memory!"

Now Ember stepped forward. "Allow me to shed some light on the situation, boys."

"Oh no." Danny gasped.

Ember pulled out her guitar and jammed out a magic chord that produced a convulsing beam of lavender energy. The magic song slammed into 'Bill' and in a flash, the young man was replaced by Savior, the Teen Titan.

Gasps filled the room, and Skulker leapt atop the table and aimed his weapon directly at Savior. "You! What is this about, human? Has the hunted convinced itself it could become the hunter?" The weapon hummed as an attack charged up.

"Wait!" Danny shouted, interposing himself between Skulker's gun and Savior. "What about the Truce!?"

"The Truce only applies to ghosts, halfa!" Skulker spat. "The living aren't so lucky!"

"But…" Danny protested..

"No buts," Ember said. "Ghosts aren't supposed to haunt the human world this night, I don't see why humans should get to haunt our world."

"We're not here to haunt you," Savior shot back. "A Ghost _did_ attack the human world—one a lot more powerful than any of you. It opened a portal to this ghost world that sucked us in here—Phantom and myself."

"And," Danny added, "I was hoping you could help me take him down. He's incredibly powerful, but I thought that together…"

"Forget it," Skulker said. "The last time we tried to help you smash a ghost violating the Truce, he turned us against each other."

By this time, a crowd had gathered around Danny, both foes he knew and faces he didn't. The ghost warden Walker hovered forward from the crowed and confronted Skulker. "You know the Rules, Skulker. _Every_ ghost honors the Truce."

"If you're so big on the rules, then you help the child hunt the rogue down," Skulker barked. "I'm here to enjoy copious amounts of ecto-turkey and ecto-beer before I continue the hunt. And I will change my mind for nobody. Not even you, warden."

"Ho boy," Danny said, burying his face in his hand. "This won't end well." Any instant now one of the two would shoot first and the Truce would be cancelled.

Dora, however, had other ideas. "Cease this pointless argument," she demanded, inserting herself between the two. "Don't make me use this!" She indicated her amulet, the one that gave her the ability to transform into a dragon. "This is my castle, and you are welcome here only as long as you abide by my rules."

"I like this one," Savior whispered to Danny's ear, indciating Dora.

And on the opposite side, Danny felt someone tugging at his costume. He turned to find Young Blood standing by him, now in some sort of science fiction get up._ Wonderful. _But the look on his face, instead of his usual arrogant smirk, was one of grave concern. "Hey, landlubber, mind telling me what this Ghost you said was violating the truce looked like?"

Danny opened his mouth to respond, but Savior answered for him. "He was about eight feet tall, wore a cloak like the Grim Reaper, and had a scythe. Like the Grim Reaper. And even though all evidence points to it being the Grim Reaper, Phantom claims that Death is a woman. Go figure."

"Why are you asking?" Danny thought it was relevant, even if he risked another one of Young Blood's practical jokes. He still had no idea who he was up against.

But instead of laughing, Young Blood began sweating, and motioned with his thumb. Danny followed the gaze to the entrance of the banquet room...

Where the Ghost stood, glaring that sightless glare directly at Danny.

Behind him, Danny realized the argument between Skulker and Walker had only escalated and that Dora was unable to rein it in—even more ghosts had joined the verbal assault. "Guys!" Danny shouted.

The argument continued, even as the Ghost inched closer to Danny, pointing at him with a bony finger.

"GUYS!" Danny shouted again. Savior just seemed to be trying to stare down the Ghost as if to figure him out… Or something.

The Ghost inched ever closer, finally drawing the attention of a few of those not directly involved in the argument…

Danny whirled around, charging up a slight burst of Ghostly Wail and trying one last time**_. "GUYS!"_**

All the ghosts whirled around to find out what the halfa wanted, and then saw the unwanted intruder. "Sweet merciful…!" Dora blurted.

"Blast him!" called Technus.

Several of the ghosts gathered around the table opened fire with various weapons or energy beams, sending the Ghost careening back into the wall of the castle with an impact that made the whole structure shake. But it peeled itself off the wall and returned fire, blowing Richard Rose and Penelope Spectra away with a massive green fireball, then turning and blasting forward at supersonic speeds and grabbing Ember's guitar. It jerked it from her hand and then smashed the punk rocker into the wall with her own instrument.

Wulf lunged forward to strike it, but the Ghost just waved its wrist and a portal opened inside of Danny's feral ally, warping him away…

"How powerful is this thing?" Danny blurted, glancing at Savior…

Who was still staring blankly at the wall, his eyes glazed-over. "Savior!" Danny waved a hand in front of his face and got no response. He touched Noel's shoulder only to have the Titan collapse onto the floor of the castle... Danny instantly tried to check the pulse of the unconscious hero, and found it there, but faint…_What is going on here?_

The invader, meanwhile, was still cutting a swath of destruction through the banquet room. Skulker blasted it with some powerful arm mounted canon, and it flew back to the edge of the table… and stopped, doing nothing but staring at the rest of the ghosts.

Dorathea stepped forward, looking indignant and, Danny noticed, slightly afraid. "What do _you_ want, traitor!? Why have you come here on the day of the Truce? Why have you assaulted us? Does your infernal occupation not give you enough to do!?"

The Ghost said nothing, continuing to stare the group down… for a few seconds. Then it raised its bony hand, wreathed in flames, and pointed it directly at Danny.

"Me!?" Danny shouted. "What did I do…?"

The Ghost did not respond. It simply vanished into another fiery portal, leaving a mess in the banquet hall and many questions unanswered. Though there was one on the tip of everybody's tongue—and everybody who wanted to know knew who to ask.

Danny stepped forward to Dorathea. "Dora—Queen Dorathea. You seem to know who that was. Do you care to tell us?" Danny's voice wasn't as polite as it could have been, but Dora did not take offense.

"I know who that was, for it is a legend passed down in this part of the Ghost Zone. His true name is long forgotten, likely even by him. We know him as the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come."

That statement drew a few gasps from the audience, but none of them said what Danny was thinking. So Danny did. "Isn't he a Charles Dickens character?"

"Charles Dickens is a name I'm not familiar with, but I assure you no living man would have record of this being if they had not met him first hand—or known someone who did. He is an outcast, cursed forever to meddle in the affairs of the living by she who collects the Dead."

"You mean the girl with the ankh?" Danny realized aloud.

Dora nodded.

"So what does the Ghost want with me? I may not like Christmas, but I'm a superhero. I'm not some misanthropist old man. Don't ask me how I know the word misanthropist."

"Honestly, I have no idea what the Ghost hopes to gain by all this, or what is motives are."

Suddenly, a voice Danny was all to happy to hear spoke.

"I do." Savior said, standing up and joining Danny's side. "I read his mind… I know what he wants…"

"What?" Danny asked, hardly able to conceal his relief that Noel wasn't dead. (He'd hate to bring that news to Raven.) "What does he want?"

Noel gave a bitter chuckle than Danny recognized all to well. "What do all the rogue super beings want? He's trying to destroy the universe."

* * *

_End Note: It took me a good ten minutes to figure out how to word that last line by Noel without it sounding cliche or corny. Please don't laugh at me._


	4. Apocalypse

**Noel, Noel  
Chapter Four: Apocalypse **

"He's trying to destroy the universe."

"What!?" Danny blurted… "Why!? How!?"

Danny's enemies had wanted many things—power, money, conquest, or the simple pleasure of the fight. One had wanted his sister; one had wanted to scorch the Earth and one had wanted him to condemn another to the depths of hell. One would be trying even now to rest Danny's pelt at the foot of his bed, if not for the Ghost Truce.

But to end the entire universe? That was a new one, even for Danny's crazy cast of rogues.

Savior shuddered. "I'm not sure about any of this. But when I saw him coming, I slipped a strand of the Shimmer into his ear—he definitely has a head despite appearances to the contrary."

"You did what?" Skulker asked from across the room, still not concealing his bitterness at the human's presence.

"My talent, the Shimmer." Savior held up a hand and the white energy ropes that he used for offense and defense emerged. "They can interface with nervous systems, and I tried to figure out what his goal was."

Dorathea floated forward. "And that is to destroy the universe? But why and how does he seek to do this?"

Savior frowned. "The details are… vague. The reason I passed out was… his mind is incredibly complex. It overwhelmed me just trying to find anything in it, but I know what he wants and why. Those were almost easy to discern. I think he's trying to end Christmas forever.. He thinks that would force the Apocalypse to come sooner, and then he'd be free of his job—the curse, I guess. All I know is that he may not look it, but he's as bitter as Sizzle ever was."

"Lovely," Danny muttered, recalling the hatred Sizzle had spewed forth from the moment she'd stepped into his life. Danny turned and surveyed the remaining ghosts in the room. It seemed that more than Wulf had been warped away by the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come, but there was still a rather large group of ghosts there.

"But why should we believe one such as you, human child?" Nikolai Technus demanded of Savior. "How do we truly know you read the mind of this traitor?"

"And even if you are telling the truth," Ember said, getting up and dusting off her clothing, "Why should we help you? You can handle it yourself—if you really defeated Pariah Dark and Sizzle."

Danny felt his face fall, but refused to be disheartened yet. "I had help with Dark. I believe you were there yourself, Ember."

"Miss McLean, I'm not sure…" Savior began, "That you really understand what's at stake here. This guy wants to prevent Christmas from ever happening again. And I don't know how, but I know he believes he can do it. I've learned that when something this absurdly powerful thinks it can do something—it usually can come pretty close."

"But why did it come here and wreck the place?" Young Blood shouted. "Why did it point at Danny?"

Savior frowned as if trying to wrack his brain, and also showed an amount of displeasure towards Danny himself. Danny figured it was because pretty much all his enemies knew his name and could blurt it to his parents or the government at any instance.

"I think…" Savior began cautiously, "that he wanted you to fight Danny. Danny is the only one who can stop him. I think.."

"I do not think this warrants my concern," Technus said. "I shall be ruler of the woirld one day."

"Idiot, there won't be a world, or a 'woirld' or however else you want to garble it,." Savior walked towards the ghosts. "You guys.. You like this Truce, right?"

"Yes…"

"Well he wants to take that from you—from all of us. Everything good and worthwhile about this season will be lost along with all the bad. If the universe ends and the Ghost Zone somehow survives, you'll be trapped her in an unending void with no sense of time for all eternity. No more Truce. No more celebration."

Danny grew concerned, because it was clear that not only was Savior not fully well, but he was having a difficult time focusing on the thoughts he'd siphoned out of Future. He'd never seen Noel so stressed before, even in the heat of battle. He'd never seen Savior..

_Afraid. _

Danny turned and shot a glance at his foes and allies over his shoulder. "If you all want to come with me, fine. If not, I don't need you. Savior, mind if I overshadow you again to get us both out of here?"

Savior gave him a glare of disapproval, but resignation to the act, and Danny did so, flying out of the castle and into the Ghost Zone above.

Suddenly, Danny heard a voice behind them, calling out for them to wait. Danny turned to see Desiree flying up behind them, followed closely by Ember, Spectra and Bertrand, Walker and Walker's henchmen, Kitty and Johnny 13, and Queen Dorathea herself…

"So this is our strike force?" Noel said, briefly taking control of Danny's body. "It could be worse."

"Suck it up, dipstick," Ember spat. "You're lucky to have this much."

"Though I must say," Spectra commented. "You do look like a waterfall of misery, boy. Mind if I have a taste?"

Danny reasserted his control and arched one of Noel's eyebrows. "The Titan is not on the menu, Spectra."

"We shall not fight amongst ourselves on the Eve of the Truce," Dora insisted. "It is with only the utmost restraint that I've not yet transformed into a Dragon."

"Uh oh," Johnny said, pointing towards the Ghost Zone's parts unknown—at least to Danny. The overshadowed Titan turned his head to see a massive portal opening before them, wreathed in green flames.

"This… is trouble," Spectra said with false sweetness. "I'm almost inclined to abandon you all to whatever gruesome second deaths this guy has cooked up for us."

"Whatever," Danny said. "I'm going in."

Danny blasted towards the portal, and the ghosts that were brave enough to follow followed**  
**

* * *

The other side was incredible. Noel saw it all through his own eyes, even as Danny steered the body—gargantuan pillars and impossible structures that brought images of Olympus and New Cronus to Noel's mind… 

"There really are infinite realms here," Savior said to Danny. "How much does property here cost?"

Danny didn't respond out loud, but Savior heard Danny's voice in his mind. "I wouldn't if I were you. The warden—Walker, doesn't allow any matter from our world into the Ghost Zone, including people."**  
**

* * *

Atop one of the massive temples in this area of the Ghost Zone, after traveling for hours, the party stopped to rest. Bertrand offered Danny some ecto-beer but he turned it down. 

Danny had left Savior's body, and the two were discussing their foe. "It all seems a bit weird," Danny said. "If I was the only one who could stop him, why did he suck me into the Ghost Zone?"

Savior shrugged. "Like I said, I think he wanted your enemies to ignore the truce and destroy you. Maybe I was the catalyst to make that happen. I don't know how this thing's mind works honestly. "Connecting and reading 'data' from a human brain on the spot is hard enough, this thing was like trying to pick up pictures from the bottom of a tank covered with acid and filled with rabid piranhas."

Kitty, who was standing beside Danny downing some bottle of ectoplasmic liquid, commented. "Did you catch those powers? I've never seen anything like that. That green flame he kept using. Even Ember's hair doesn't behave like that."

Danny glanced up at her, and Noel saw something strange in his eyes… Like he was trying to recall an old, vague memory.

"I have," Danny said after a bit. "I've used something almost exactly like that—in the future."

"What?" Noel asked. "This is a new one. When did you go into the future?"

"It's… very vague," Danny said. "But I remember something happened. Valerie got killed, and then… This is going to sound completely insane, but Marty McFly took me to the future."

That wasn't what Noel was expecting. He almost felt like falling backwards out of his seat and rolling across the ground in a fit of laughter, but resisted the urge. He anchored himself with the Shimmer. "Danny. You were dreaming. Marty McFly is a fictional character. In a movie."

"No." Danny said. "I know it wasn't a dream. It was just like—after I got back, the past and future suddenly changed on me. But I know what I saw. The Amulet of Roasha—Vlad used it to take over the world in the future. And I used it myself."

"You're serious." Noel stared Danny up and down and didn't see a hint that he was joking. "You're really honest-to-God serious, that you think Marty McFly became real and took you into the future."

"Wasn't your entire city attacked by fictional characters last Halloween?" Danny shot back.

Noel sweatdropped. "We don't talk about that. It didn't officially happen. And don't go asking Metatron about it, cause he wasn't there."

"_Riiight_," Danny said, even as one of the walls of the temple crumbled in the distance. "Assuming the official Titans website is to be believed, Chaos Magic manifestations of a bunch of horrible third-rate horror movie villains appeared in Jump City and trashed the place. Maybe something like that happened to me. The rules of _Back to the Future_ suddenly became the rules of our world temporarily, and the characters came alive too. All I know is, I was in the future, and I used a new attack called the Hopefire. I basically used the emotional energy of the ghosts around me—their hope—and turned it into a weapon. If that makes any sense."

Noel shook his head. "Not really, but I'll keep that in mind." _Actually, I won't._

* * *

_He started off so well, this Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come._

_The guardian spirit of Christmas. He never really had an official title or name; it was what he did that defined him. Everywhere he went, he promoted Christmas Spirit, behind the scenes... He so dearly wanted the holiday—'his' holiday—to succeed. _

_But the guardian only held his full powers on Christmas itself. And in, say, June, when Christmas was still half a year distant, he had a very grim appearance indeed. Some would say he looked like Death—like the Grim Reaper._

_It was in this form that he did much of his wandering. He traveled the world, searching for things to occupy his mind and expand his understanding of the universe. He found himself in far off New Cronus where he was taught architecture by the Titans of Myth. He even entered the Realm of Dreams._

_The first blow to his sanity would come from there—though not directly—when, purely by chance, he encountered the dreams of a struggling author who was greatly concerned that Christmas was becoming less meaningful each year…_

* * *

On the distant end of a coliseum-like structure within Future's domain, Danny and Savior felt the gravity increase to near-earth levels, and Savior found himself able to walk and move like normal for a change. "In a way, I almost miss being half weightless." 

Spectra laughed. "Enjoy it while you can. As much angst as you have, boy, you're sure to be dead weight as a ghost."

"Was that supposed to be a pun?" Savior snarked.

"Knock it off, you two!" Danny said, imposing himself between the fight.

Promptly, a giant magenta ball of energy swooped down and knocked Spectra off the floating coliseum and into the abyss below.

"Wha-!?"

Danny turned to see Future, hovering above the arena, his bony hands glowing with crimson fire.

Spectra blasted back up in her solid black form and returned fire with a burst of green lightning, Future deflected it, and Bertrand transformed into a ninja and leapt at the ghost. But Future just faded backwards, grabbing Bertrand's leg and hurling him into Walker.

Walker's men charged forward, leveling their rifles at Future and blasting away, but the ghost took each shot and then launched another magenta fireball at them, sending them scattering like bowling pins.

Danny charged forward, sending a series of ectoplasmic energy shots at Future, and Savior threw out a couple of Shimmer strands that slammed into the columns that held up the roof of the coliseum and rocketed upwards, then reversing and swinging along the ceiling.

Danny saw Savior coming and charged forward, timing it so both Phantom and Titan slammed into the Ghost at the same time.

Rolling away as the Ghost began to counter attack, Savior accidentally knocked Kitty over with his momentum. "Oh man!" Kitty shouted at him.

Savior muttered a half-hearted apology and stood up. Danny and Future were going at it from a distance, now, and Danny… seemed to be winning.

"The kid is stronger than most people think," Savior said, watching the fight…

Dora nodded. "He has a great amount of power—though it's hidden away somewhere."

Savior regarded the ghost woman a moment. So she new about it? Great. After a moment of silence, he asked, "Why didn't you send your army? You're a queen after all."

"My army has nothing on me," Dora responded, allowing her anger to flow freely for the first time that night. Her eyes flared, glowing red even as her body transformed from woman to Dragon via the power of the amulet of Aragon.** "_TRUCE BREAKER!" _**The dragon bellowed.

Dora charged forward, tearing into Future, even as Danny blasted him with another double-handed ecto-shot.

Savior watched as Walker commanded his men to fire at the ceiling with rocket launchers—of the ectoplasmic energy variety, of course.

The rockets lanced out and hit their target, and a chunk of the ceiling crumbled on top of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, burying him in a pile of rubble fifty feet high.

Danny and Dorathea came to a rest near the pile of rubble, breathing heavily from the strain, and the ghosts quickly gathered around.

"Is it dead?" Kitty asked.

"I think the answer to that question is pretty obvious," Savior said. "_Ghost_ of Christmas Yet to Come."

"I meant did we _beat _him," Kitty snapped.

Johnny 13 knelt by the pile of rubble, and Shadow moved towards it, writhing as if it were feeling some sort of energy coursing through it. It began to hiss.

"He's still under there," Johnny said...

And then the pile of rubble exploded in a burst of ectoplasmic energy and the green fire, the one that seemed to allow Future to do anything he wanted. Electricity crackled and the debris floated in the air, even as most of the ghosts were knocked on their butts. Only Savior was left standing, because, being human, the ghost-objects passed right through him.

Danny quickly joined him, though, his hands pulsating with green light. He began shouting at the Future. "Look, dude, I have no idea why you hate your job so much, but if you don't stop, neither will I."

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come held out a hand, crimson lighting crackling along his fingertips, until it coalesced into a grim-reaper-like scythe.

Which the Ghost then swiped through the air, slicing into reality, a trail forming where the blade traveled and shards of energy raining down on the ghosts. Danny and the others shielded themselves as best the could, and Savior hid, not behind but within one of the stones that had formerly been a part of the coliseum's ceiling, using his intangibility to Ghost Zone-objects to his strategic advantage.

But with another wave of the hand, Future himself vanished into another one of his portals.

Then the shards began glowing, and changing. Danny gasped when he saw eyes appear on the shard nearest to him, and from there it only expanded, growing larger and transforming into an energy-based crystalline entity resembling a minotaur. Fitting for a battle in a coliseum.

Danny blasted first, deigning to ask questions later—if ever. As he charged forward, pummeling the minotaur with his fists, chunks of the transparent being shattering off like glass. But the minotaur retaliated, grabbing Danny by the neck and throwing him up into an intact portion of the ceiling. Danny didn't hit hard, as he had lost momentum on the way, and his new vantage point gave him a good perspective on the battle below.

Savior was fighting a group of things that looked like Medusa, while a phalanx of Cyclopes were smashing through Walker's men. Harpies were having it out with Johnny, Shadow, and Kitty, and Dora and Ember busy taking down a group of flying Sirens. Spectra was nowhere to be seen, and Bertrand had been cornered by a Cerberus.

Danny cringed. "Somebody has been playing way too much _God of War_."

* * *

A gorgon. No, not a gorgon, several gorgons. Why did he always get saddled with fighting something that his powers were almost worthless against? Savior would have let out a stream of swearing if he hadn't been in the heat of a battle. 

One of the snake-haired creatures lunged at him, and Savior sprung over its head and sliced at the snakes with Shimmer blades, which clearly caused the gorgon a lot of pain. Savior landed hard, then lunged forward, stabbing at the creature's stomach, but it rolled out of the way, and the one behind it kicked him in the face…

Noel took the blow and flipped backwards off his hands, then blasted two Shimmer blades through his feet, through the floor below and then up into the heads of the manifestations. Their transparent heads shattered like a porcelain doll's, and both gorgons collapsed onto the ground.

The third one shoulder-slammed him in the back, but Savior had expected that, and rolled with the blow, turning over as he came up and grabbing a nearby chunk of the ceiling—it seemed that somehow he only phased through it when he applied a certain amount of pressure. He could still pick up ghost zone objects, just as ghosts could pick up human world objects.

Savior hurled the chunk of rock at the gorgon's face, but it dodged out of the way and leapt into the air, trying to stomp him into the ground. Savior rolled into another one of the chunks of the ceiling… which the gorgon promptly landed on and smashed to dust… With no Savior to be found inside…

Noel then phased through the floor right behind the gorgon, Shimmer lines from his shoulders pulling him through even as lines from his feet pushed. And more came from his hands, two spikes of Shimmer strands that Noel slammed into the sides of the gorgon's head, shattering it like the other two.

Okay, maybe they weren't almost worthless. These gorgons didn't have the power to turn him to stone with a look… which likely meant that none of the creatures had such powers…

Across the room, Noel saw Bertrand transform into a Hydra and eat the Cerberus, and Walker finally got his men coordinated enough to blast the eyes of their monocular foes, causing all the Cyclopes to collapse and shatter on the hard ground. Shadow tore through the harpies, knocking them out of the sky even as Kitty used her purse to smash their crystalline wings to shards of energy.

"Jeez, what do you keep in that thing?" Johnny said after Kitty had finished her rampage.

"Just the essentials," she said, giving him a flirtatious wink.

"That's my babe." He smiled.

Then Danny blasted down, pummeling the minotaur with a series of punches and kicks, sending ripples of energy off of his fists and causing the creature to crack, pieces of him shattering off with every blow. Danny grabbed it by the horns and hurled it into the wall, then finished it off with a double-handed ectoplasmic energy blast.

Danny hovered back to the ground and returned to human form, involuntarily.

"That drained me a lot more than it should have," he commented.

"Now that you mention it," Ember said, bashing in the final head of the last remaining Siren with her guitar.. "Nope. I don't feel a thing."

"Me neither," Kitty said. "Are you sure you just didn't over-work yourself?"

"I wasn't effected either," Savior said as he came forward. "Either you're more out of shape than you look, rookie, or it has something to do with your half-and-half nature. Or…"

"Or what?" Danny asked.

"Never mind."

"Okay…" Danny shrugged. "Well, if that was his idea of an obstacle, I think we survived it."

"Not without casualties, though," Savior said. "I don't see Spectra anywhere."

Bertrand began to look worried.

"It's possible Spectra just up and left," Ember said. "I wouldn't it put it past that—"

"AHEM!"

All heads turned to see Spectra, in the form of an elderly woman, crawling out from behind a larger rock. "I was afraid of this," she sobbed. "I'm nothing without my youth, and I went too long without consuming any misery—all thanks to that boy!"

She pointed at Danny, then lunged at him, her fingernails ready to strike like claws "Share with me your misery, boy!"

"No! Penelope!" Dora shouted.

Danny, unable to transform or react in time, stared blankly as the old lady flew towards her….

And suddenly vanished in a flash of light, dispersing into a cloud that moved towards Savior. When it dissipated, Danny could see Savior was holding a small object shaped like an acorn, attached to a chain.

"Fact," Savior stated. "The ghosts of this realm are combinations of ectoplasmic energy and post-human consciousness."

"That's what my mom says," Danny deadpanned.

"This device scrambles both into a form that's almost unusable until the consciousness part can pull the ectoplasm back together." Savior extended his hand at an angle behind him, and released the switch on the artifact. Another bright light-emitting substance spewed out and collapsed onto the ground, vaguely resembling what Spectra might look like as hamburger meat.

"If any of you tries to violate the Truce by attacking myself or Danny, that will be your fate as well."

"Tread carefully, young man," Dorathea said. "Penelope may have violated the Truce, but you are still greatly outnumbered here, and are not under that Truce's protection."

"Like it or not," Danny said, "Savior is under my protection until we're out of here. And to fight him, you'll have to violate the Truce and attack me."

Walker examined the pile of Spectra on the ground and smiled. "You have nothing to worry about. Spectra was weak. She broke the rules. I don't break them—I _make _them. And everyone else here will follow them or end up in my prison."

"That's all well and good, but we still have to save Christmas," Danny said. "And we still have no idea _how_ this future guy plans to bring about the Apocalypse."

Savior nodded. "And everyone needs to pay more attention to their flanks. I noticed during the fight that everyone was paying so much attention to their own foes that they could have been hit from the side at any point."

They all looked at him, Danny thinking probably what everyone else was: _Who do you think you are?_

"And," Savior added. "Don't get so caught up on one enemy that you don't notice what else is going on. Especially you, rookie."

Danny shook his head, but the party continued after that, leaving Spectra there to recover alone.

* * *

_End note: Okay, so I lied. I said continuity with Legendverse wouldn't be important, and it's becoming quite important. For further explanations of Danny's second trip to the future, read my story Time Phantom. For more on the great power that Danny possesses, read Legend Maker's story Danny's Inferno._


	5. Armageddon

**Noel, Noel  
Chapter Five: Armageddon**

The party had found its way through an incredible labyrinth below the coliseum. Noel had observed wryly that it wasn't actually a maze, just a long, winding tunnel with a few branching paths—it was almost as though Future wanted them to make it through.

Of course, the other ghosts quickly pointed out the attack of another set of mythological creatures while in the labyrinth and the fact that Bertrand was now carrying his head around as evidence to the contrary.

The group now stood in front of a massive door, the likes of which none of them had ever seen outside of a video game. The problem was—how to enter?

Danny turned the gears on the door yet again, then flew back down to the group, standing in front and hoping something he'd done would pay off. It seemed that no matter what they did, there was something missing from the puzzle.

Desiree hovered over to Danny and suggested he wish the door open; Danny did so, but the magic didn't seem to have any effect on the door. Danny sighed and walked away from the ghost genie.

Next to her, Ember looked up. "Say, where were you last chapter?"

Desiree blushed as another wall collapsed behind them. "I was… um… looking for the facilities."

Ember scowled at her. "You don't even have legs!"

Desiree nodded again. "Yeah. This is something I _really_ don't like to talk about."

Ember cringed and obviously decided not to pursue the matter any farther.

Danny noticed that Savior had dropped something, and extended his arm with an ecto-trail and picked it up.

"Interesting ability there," Noel observed. "Might want to think of some new applications for it."

"Is that a piece of one of the crystal creatures we fought?" Danny asked, indicating what he had just given back to Savior.

Savior nodded. "I picked up a piece of the last minotaur you killed. I noticed that when you were hitting it, it was glowing green. None of the others were doing anything but breaking from impacts, none but the ones you touched. I was trying to see if there was anything different about them, but as best I can tell…"

Savior trailed off as though he'd just stumbled across a horrible possibility but didn't want to voice it just yet. "Never mind," he said. Savior walked across the way and found a small hole in the door in front of the ghosts, and inserted the crystal into it.

Nothing happened.

Savior reached in, wrapping it with his Shimmer and giving it a hard tug, and the crystal dislodged. "I filed it down so it wouldn't cut me," he explained. Then he handed it to Danny.

"Why are you giving this…?" Danny started to ask… And suddenly, the crystal began glowing green in his hand. "What?" Danny watched as the glow got brighter, and as it did, he began to feel weaker; his shoulders fell and his eyelids got heavier..

"I was right. It's draining power from you for some reason," Savior said. He glanced to his right. "Though why only you is a mystery,"

"I guess it's because I'm half ghost," Danny said. "Or something."

Savior's eyes then lit up, and he inserted the crystal into the slot once again. The effect was immediate—red, green, and blue flames shot out of the area around the crystal along trenches in the door and moved all the way to the larger trenches that went around the circumference of the door itself. There the three colors of flames combined into one massively bright white fire that blinded all the ghosts there…

Then all the gears on the door began turning at once. The latches came undone, and it slid open, revealing a maelstrom of energy behind. The energy faded off into the distance, forming a tunnel, like a passageway into the unknown reaches beyond.

"Wow…" Savior said.

Walker stepped forward and examined the vortex. "How do we know it's not some sort of trap?"

"Only one way to find out," Danny said, walking up beside Walker. "I'll go first."

Walker's eyes narrowed at the ghost boy. "You know this night won't change anything between us, kid."

Danny shook his head. "I don't expect it to. I just… hope."

He stepped into the portal, and the word went white**.  
**

* * *

_You see, the author he encountered, if you haven't yet figured it out, was Charles Dickens._

_The spirit, up unto that point, was the reality behind the legends that became known to most as Santa Claus.. He didn't want to be such a visible figure, though. That's how Santa Claus came about. He worked with a group of magical beings—the fairies—to take a lowly monk named Nicholas and give him many of the trappings that traditionally are associated with Santa._

_But at this time, in July, when he encountered Charles Dickens, he was in his drab, grim form. In the Realm of Dreams, he walked with Dickens in his dreams, observing and influencing. Dickens, of course, would go on to write one of the most beloved Christmas stories of all time._

_Unfortunately, the dream realm at the time was lorded over by my haughty brother, Morpheus, and he saw fit not to meddle in the affairs of men or spirits. Dickens awoke with only a scant recollection of his time with the Ghost—a recollection only of his dark and dreary form. It was this form that Dickens made familiar with the world—a grim, evil specter._

_But at the time, celebration of Christmas was in decline, and Dickens' novel saved the holiday in more than a few ways. So the Ghost accepted that he was now seen as a symbol of blight and villainy, while two ghosts that came entirely from Dickens' imagination were the bright and colorful spirits of hope. Nevertheless, this would become, in the end, strike one against his sanity._

* * *

Danny snapped awake, finding himself floating in a void of nothing, and in his human form. "Wha?! I'm going ghost!" Danny cried, transforming and assuming a defensive pose…

Then his guard and his jaw both dropped. The area he was in was _massive_. He'd never seen on earth or space or anywhere in the ghost zone such an enormous expanse in all directions, and probably never would ever again. The distant boundaries, if they were boundaries, were black as Vlad Plasmius' transformation rings, with glowing green veins of energy throughout, like cracks in volcanic rock where lava was still visible. Down below him, there was a gargantuan structure, shaped like a giant claw and writhing with green energy..

"Incredible, isn't it," said a voice behind Danny, and he whirled around to see Noel hovering next to him.

"Savior!" He blurted. "I didn't hear you show up—"

Danny trailed off when he saw behind Savior that the entire party was there with him, gathered in a semicircle behind them.

"You were unconscious when we came through," Savior said. "We've been here for five minutes waiting for you to wake up."

"Oh…"

"I'm not sure I like this place," Johnny said. "There may be too much trouble here—even for a guy like me."

"That's the price of heroism," Dorathea said. "Something I've been learning for nearly a year now."

Danny glanced at Savior, and Savior once again acquiesced to being possessed. "Hold on, this time I want to try something," Danny said in Savior's body. "I'm going ghost!"

Rings slid around Savior, causing the Titan's eyes to go bright green, and all his clothing to go jet black, his shirt now sporting Danny Phantom's insignia.

"That is so wrong," Ember said.

"Whatever," Danny said with a smirk. "Now we fight as one…"

Danny was suddenly forcibly ejected from Savior's body by a bunch of Shimmer strands, the transformation vanishing from Noel's clothing even has his body went back to the non-Savior form.

"Okay, maybe not. It was worth a shot though." Danny blasted back into Savior's body before the Titan could react, and the party continued onward.

As they approached the giant claw-platform, Danny saw that the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come was hovering above the middle of the claw-shaped platform, directing the energies from it from the fingertips of the claws and up into the air into a swirling sphere of ghost-energy…

Future must have sensed them coming, because he whirled around when he perceived them, his body shaking with anger. He raised his bony hands and began gathering energy, which formed into a massive fireball—which he then hurled at the ghosts, forcing them to scatter.

With a wave of his hand, all around the claw platform, more stone appeared, as though he was making a battle ground for the final struggle… But why would he need such a large battle ground…? Unless…

Future raised both his hands again, and something unexpected happened. Windows in space-time appeared, and on the first window, a middle aged woman with red hair, wearing a teal jumpsuit, appeared.

"Um, Danny… Isn't that your…" Kitty started…

"MOM!" Danny screamed, blasting towards the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. But Future just backhanded him and sent him flying… Even as the other windows in space-time began to show their own stories…

Each one began focusing on someone important to Danny—Jack Fenton, Tucker Foley, Samantha Manson, Jazz Fenton, Valerie Grey, and Mr. Lancer. All of them simultaneously stopped, a strange glowing energy washing over their bodies as they fell into a coma-like status. The energy didn't go away, but rather, portions of it leapt out through the windows in space-time and gathering in the right hand of the Ghost, hovering like little red tongues of flame.

And in his left hand, energy pulsed, even as scenes—memories, from the looks of it, flashed across the massive distant walls of the realm they were in—people and places from hundreds of years ago...

And then, Danny alone heard a voice in his head, like a melodious but sharp whisper.

_Those who I have graced or made tremble with my presence shall be thy undoing. Fight them or surely thy family will perish._

Danny let out an involuntary burst of ghost sense when the Ghost's words—no, his thoughts—sent a chill up Danny's spine…

In Future's right hand, stars appeared, and the stars mixed with the life-forces of Danny's loved ones (and Lancer), becoming something entirely different. Like the crystal soldiers before them, the new beings writhed and transformed, literally being born as Danny watched…

But these things weren't generic manifestations of mythological archetypes—they were people, psychic impressions of ones who existed or at least had once existed in the past.

"Fitting. From his hand, literal ghosts of Christmas past." Savior said inside Danny's mind.

Danny and the rest hovered down to the rock platforms even as the mixture's stalked closer; Danny left Savior's body and got ready to fight.

"Are you sure this isn't some sort of trick?" Savior cautioned. "What if killing them kills your family instead of saves them?"

Danny pointed at the screens. "I have to do something!" He spat. "These thigns are slowly draining the life out of them. I _won't let that happen!"_

Nodding, pleased with Danny's determination if not his strategic mind, said no more. "I'm still the rookie here, rookie."

Suddenly, all across the rock platforms, legions of the crystal creatures also cropped up, surrounding the rest of the party. They immediately got to work, smashing them apart, even as the life-force creatures arrived…

And Danny gasped at the first one he saw—Sizzle. "That's not possible! Sizzle is gone! Forever. I'm _certain_ of it this time."

"Unless…" Savior thought aloud, "Future visited Haley Ann Roxx during her lifetime."

Danny growled. "I'll handle her." An explosion of ectoplasmic energy sent Danny blasting towards his foe most adamant in her refusal to leave him be**.  
**

* * *

"Stupid kid," Savior muttered. "He's going to get himself killed if he keeps leaving his flank open like that." Then a Gorgon jumped on him and pinned him to the ground—or would have if Savior hadn't used his human powers to phase through the ghost-architecture and come up on the other side. He killed the Gorgon with a Shimmer blade and then ran into the oncoming fray.

Not able to watch Danny any longer, Noel left it up to Danny and fate to decide how this would end. Because he knew that Danny was the only one who could end it.

Noel darted past a Wraith that looked like Vlad the Impaler, and cut a swath of destruction through more mythological creatures, until he found his way to the claw platform, clearly the focal point of Future's evil plan, and swung up onto the tendrils, the fingers that gave the platform its claw-like appearance. He was jumped by some harpies and used the Shimmer to loop around over top one of the fingers and kicked one harpy's crystalline head off; the other he pinned to the ground and tore off its wings.

…And then something caught his eye, something that drained his face of blood and made his stomach plunge…

Not twenty feet away, smashing through Walker's men was another Wraith…

One that looked exactly like Maxwell Collins**.  
**

* * *

_After Dickens' novel, our guardian decided that the premise of going to those that were in need of Christmas cheer and essentially scaring the crap out of them to make them more fond of Christmas was a good idea. Or at least that's what I thought. _

_In retrospect, I wonder if perhaps the very fact the things that people believed about the ghost from reading Dickens' novel didn't alter the guardian's mind somehow. After all, despite what it is now, it began as a human mind. And perception can be far more powerful than any reality to a human psyche._

_It was in this form that he visited people who had trouble getting into the Christmas spirit, and was again frustrated when fear alone wasn't motivation enough for some souls. But subconsciously, he began keeping impressions of the souls. He began storing echoes of the worst of humanity, for the plan he would eventually enact against it—against what they'd done to 'his' holiday._

* * *

Sirens pursued Ember and Desiree towards the edge of the platform… Ember hurled her broken guitar at the foes, shattering the faces of two of them. But the rest kept on coming, gradually getting closer to the edge of the platform…

"You know, considering that we can fly, there's really nothing to fear." Desiree said.

"Way to kill the drama," Ember muttered. Then, her eyes lit up. "Wait, I have an idea! I wish I had a shreddin' new guitar!"

"So you have wished it, so shall it be!" Desiree said, handing Ember a gift-wrapped package that Ember opened to reveal a shiny new Fender Spectrocaster.

"This thing is amazing! I was afraid for a minute you could only grant wishes to humans."

"Actually, that's true," Desiree said with a blush. "That guitar was what I got you for Christmas at the Mall of the Dead."

Ember's face fell, but she immediately turned to see the Sirens approaching. Ember's flaming hair raged with life as she stepped forward and jammed on the new guitar; a burst of spectral energy lanced out and washed over the Sirens, blowing them away. "Tell me who you love!" Ember cried, jamming away at their enemies.

* * *

It always was easier to give advice than it was to listen to it. 

Savior hurled himself at the Maxwell Collins Wraith—not knowing or not caring that it was not his real father, just driven into a frenzy by the very sight of the beast that spawned him. It was like the Shimmer equivalent of professional wrestling; there was no subtlety or grace in the attack. Savior hurled his whole body into each blow, smashing off bits and pieces of the Wraith with every strike…

But unlike the crystalline entities, the Wraiths were malleable foes and he could not just chip them down to size like a chiseler. Noel took one strategic step back and turned his Shimmer-bludgeons into blades, and threw himself at the Maxwell Collins Wraith once again. "YOU THINK YOU CAN MOCK ME BY MAKING THIS THING LIKE MY FATHER!?" Noel shouted, more at Future than at his foe. "_YOU'RE WRONG!_ I'll take this thing and tear it limb from limb and feed it to you piece by piece!"

Noel's blades went as thin as he could, and he threw everything into a killing strike against the Wraith, raising his arms to slice its ethereal head off…

And he paid dearly for it.

Savior had been so focused on the Maxwell Wraith that he hadn't noticed the nearby centaur leveling its bow at him…

But he felt the pain when the spectral energy arrow went right through the armor of his coat, through his armpit and into his heart… The arrow dissipated, and Noel felt the sticky sensation of blood staining his shirt and running down his side, even as he desperately tried to order the Shimmer to seal off the wound… And the pain… The pain was so great Noel's brain refused to register it…

And then the Maxwell Wraith looked down at him with his cruelty-filled eyes and smashed Savior across the claw platform with a powerful backhand…

Noel slammed into one of the claws fairly high up, and rolled down it, even as everything went black**.  
**

* * *

High above the battlefield, Danny saw Noel get shot, and saw the subsequent blow that the Wraith had delivered to him… Why Noel was focusing so powerfully on that particular one, Danny didn't know. But he did know he'd just watched his fellow hero die. 

His heart sank even as his eyes filled with rage. "NOEL!" Danny shouted, blasting straight down towards the Wraith that had hit Savior in a wreath of green fire. He tore through the ghost, ripping it to shreds and then turned and blasted the centaur that had shot Noel into shards…

The ground of the claw grew brighter around them…

But up on the massive television-screen-esque displays of Danny's loved ones, the magenta aura around Jack Fenton vanished, and Danny's father slumped to the floor, his screen vanishing…

"NO!" Danny yelled, not knowing whether his father was unconscious or dead. "Show me my father!"

Future seemed to hear Danny's cry of pain, because the image reappeared; it was instantly obvious Jack was alive due to his loud snoring, but he was also completely unconscious… And the image vanished again, preventing Danny from monitoring his father's status..

Danny shot a glance at Savior and muttered a curse. His family or the guy who dumped on him all the time? Hero or not, it wasn't a hard choice.

Danny turned, seeing the Sizzle Wraith grow stronger even as his sister weakened. "Leave my family alone, you freak!" Danny snarled, blasting towards his foe. Sizzle turned and blasted towards him, focusing a ball of fire onto her fist.

When the two collided, the impact could be heard all across the Ghost Zone**.  
**

* * *

_The true final straw came in the twentieth century, when everything began changing so fast. The various legends of Santa Claus were unified—not by a grand novel or event unifying the world in celebration of Christmas based on it's true meaning or on virtues of giving and love. No… The various depictions of Santa were all washed away in favor of one popularized by a Coca-Cola advertisement._

_The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, as he'd come to call himself, saw that not only did the view of Santa that was used to sell a soft drink become universal—at the same time, even the real Santa Claus—the one managed by the fairies—changed, becoming more like the one from that advertisement. Years of rich tradition were universalized by consumerism. And our guardian could only sit back and watch as the twentieth century unfolded. Everything about Christmas, everything he'd worked so hard for transformed before his eyes into an annual cry of GIVE ME PRESENTS. Films like _It's A Wonderful Life_ and _Miracle on 34th Street _were replaced by _A Christmas Story_ and _Jingle All The Way. _Everything wrong with the holiday, everything that the guardian had fought against_ _all those years, became what defined the holiday—and in the grand scheme of things, it was all like the blink of an eye to someone who'd lived so long._

_And even then, he tried to fight back, tried to turn the tide… But… as you all can see, that didn't last. He decided that with 'his' holiday so hopelessly out of whack, he'd destroy the whole universe if he had to, just to escape the job he now considered a curse. _

_And, well, you know the rest of the story._

* * *

Walker charged forward, smashing through several Centaur and a Gorgon to attack a nearby Wraith—a man who oddly looked a lot like himself, only without the whole skull-for-a-face motif. Walker's men fired at the doppelganger, blasting away his ethereal flesh, but were dismayed as it grew back.

Even as this happened, Dora tore through more of the crystalline entities in her dragon form, even as more appeared, overwhelming the massive dragon.

"Shadow, slice and dice!" Johnny commanded. The bad luck spirit flew out from Johnny like a bullet, slicing through all the creatures trying to take down Dora, and then returning.

A Wraith that reassembled Lex Luthor manifested behind Johnny, and the ghost dived forward to avoid the Luthor Wraith's blow. Johnny turned, and sent Shadow after it; but Shadow's attack did little damage, and Johnny took a step back towards Dora…

"NEED HELP!?" the dragon bellowed.

"I think I have this one covered!" Johnny said. "Shadow, merge!"

Shadow lashed out, smashing everything in the area away from Johnny, and then melding with Johnny's green ghost aura, transforming him into a darker, more powerful version of himself.

"Meet Shadow Johnny," the new creature said with a far more gravely voice; then he began pounding the Luthor Wraith's face in. The Wraith went careening backwards into a pile of crystalline entities, where it dissipated, surrounding the creatures and merging with them, and in a flash, the Lex Luthor Wraith had become a crystal-coated giant enemy crab.

Johnny charged forward, smashing at the Wraith's legs, but the crystal deflected his attack, and another leg slammed into Johnny's side, sending the merged ghost sailing across the battle ground.

The giant enemy crab turned to attack Dorathea, and the Dragon charged forward, spewing ectoplasmic fire**.  
**

* * *

Savior did something unexpected…

He woke up and took a deep breath…

He didn't expect to do this, because he'd expected to be dead. And yet, here he was alive, and apparently quite well. At first he thought perhaps he was a ghost now, but then found himself able to phase through the floor with his fingers…And also found that his hand was in incredible pain.

He sat up and pulled the hurting left hand into his right, examining it…

"Broken," he muttered. "Just great." He'd have to set it with the Shimmer for now, because clearly there were no medics here. But as he stood up, Savior quickly found his hand wasn't the only thing in pain—his leg nearly gave out as he stood. "A sprained ankle too." More Shimmer strands needed to fix that.

The pain forced him to lean against the pillar the Maxwell Wraith—which Noel now saw no sign of—had smashed him into. And when he did… he watched as his hand seemed to magically un-mangle itself, his ankle sprain vanishing as well…

"What the—?"

Savior moved his hand closer to the pylon and it began to heal faster, the bones not mending, but _un-breaking_, as if Control Freak was rewinding it with his remote. "It's reversing time…" Noel realized out loud…

Suddenly, a loud boom alerted him to the fact a battle was still in progress and he was still a potential target. Noel felt his side and confirmed that not only was the wound gone, but so was all the blood on his shirt—as if it had flowed backwards into his body.

The source of the boom, Noel realized, was Danny, fighting with what appeared to be a massive crustacean; not only was he attacking it, but so were Johnny and Dorathea.

"Danny!" The nearby Ember shouted. "Attack its weak point on the bottom for massive damage!"

"I'm getting the sense I should be groaning for some reason..." Noel said to himself.

The Wraith within the crab's shell suddenly began glowing red, and Savior gasped when he saw someone—the young black girl who hunted ghosts, whose name he forgot—up on the screen, begin to writhe uncontrollably, even as more life energy left her body and entered the enemy crab.

"He's draining her!" Noel tried to shout at Danny. Danny goggled when he saw Noel alive.

"How…"

"Doesn't matter! Just save the girl!" Noel ran forward, even has some more crystalline harpies swooped at him. Noel fought them off, cursing his earlier mistake. He'd just got done yelling at Danny for that same blasted thing, and then nearly gotten himself killed over it…

And up above the battlefield, Savior saw the Sizzle Wraith fighting with Desiree—and winning.

"This is going poorly," He noted.

He heard Danny shout, and turned to see that the crab Wraith had pierced one of its legs right through Dora's chest…

And Danny was none too happy about it, his eyes literally burning with green fire as he tore into the crab's under-section with a flurry of powerful punches… And the realization suddenly hit Noel that Phantom was tapping into the Primmortal power…

One massive uppercut later, the crab Wraith exploded into a million tiny pieces, vanishing in a burst of green energy from Danny's attack. The life-energy stealing aura around Danny's ghost-hunting girlfriend vanished, and she collapsed to the ground, unconscious like Jack.

But then something happened that only Noel noticed… The ground had glowed with every blow Danny had leveled against the crab, and it had glowed the brightest when Danny destroyed the Wraith completely. Savior watched the glow travel up the pylons that gave the platform its claw-like appearance, and coalesce at the very tips, where it then lanced out in narrow laser beams to a ball of energy that the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come was manipulating high above the battle area…

And instantly, Noel knew what was happening—everything made sense. The ghost attacking Danny at the mall, the fact he kept leaving the doors unguarded, and that he constantly allowed each fight be just difficult enough to keep Danny's resolve from breaking…

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come wasn't trying to _stop_ Danny… It was trying to _use_ him.

* * *

Danny blasted away from a Centaur, then grabbed a Gorgon's head and tore it off, then threw the head at the Centaur. Both creatures shattered from the impact, and Danny turned to find another of the Wraiths—the one that looked like Vlad the Impaler.

"Christmas is for chumps!" it cried. Danny didn't disagree, but it was draining the life from someone he cared about. He had a problem with that. Danny slugged the Wraith in the face and then backhanded the ghost when it turned around. It hovered back and then pulled out a sword and tried to stab Danny with it. But the hero just rolled out of the way and smashed the blade at the hilt with his fist.

The Wraith jumped back again and pulled out a long whip, which it smashed against Danny's chest. Danny fell back, the ghost cracking the whip at him again and again, until Danny decided to grab the whip as it came, and jerk it forward. As 'Vlad' arrived, Danny kicked him in the face and threw him over his shoulder. "Go ghost stinger!" he shouted, sending that same attack up the whip at the Wraith… Which was promptly torn apart atom by atom.

Danny pulled the tip of the whip up to his face and arched an eyebrow. "Is it just me or is this fight getting easier?"

He turned to see everyone else struggling to survived and shrugged. "I guess it _is_ just me…"

On the 'screens' above the battlefield, the life-draining aura around Maddie vanished, and Danny's mother collapsed unconscious.

As Danny started to fly off, though, he saw Noel running towards him, smashing through some enemies as he came.

"Phantom, listen to me!" Savior said. "I know what Future is planning."

"How did you survive that—?"

Savior turned and pointed to the pylons, clearly worried. "Those things are gathering energy and converting it into some sort of Negative Time. My guess is he wants to shoot that into the future and nullify all future instances of Christmas."

"And that would get him out of his job? Or bring about the Apocalypse?"

"The timeline can't take that sort of abuse," Noel explained. "It would probably collapse in on itself if that many 48-hour periods suddenly vanished. And Danny, I know a guy born in 2982. This is going to take a lot of power…"

Danny's eyes lit up. "Which means if we can find his power source and smash it, he's done for."

"No, Danny!" Noel said with a frown. "YOU are his power source—this battle is his power source. But mostly you—because of… um.. you're half-ghost nature or something. I think I read something about this in his mind, but it was buried in my subconscious till now."

Savior glanced to his right again. _Why does he keep doing that? _

"You mean he lead us here so he could suck our energy.." Danny said trailing off. "Great, now what do I do!?"

"Just hold back, try not to use too much power. I'll… think of something." Savior started to run off, then turned back to Danny. "Just hypothetically, if you were going to use that Hopefire attack again here, is there anything I could do to help?"

Danny frowned. "Unless you can conjure up a new Amulet of Roasha or give me a psychic connection with every ghost in existence… I don't think so."

Noel cursed, and ran off.

And Danny couldn't help but think Noel hadn't given him the whole story**.  
**

* * *

Savior ran towards the other ghosts, ice in the pit of his stomach. He hated to do this, but if Danny couldn't use his Primmortal power or his Hopefire, their options were limited. And Savior couldn't just tell him about the Primmortal power—it could only be accessed by those not searching for it.

So, he pulled the trinket he'd used to stop Spectra out of his coat and began sucking the ectoplasmic energy out of the crystalline structures, all of them becoming nothing but fancy glass sculptures once their energy was gone…

But the artifact was, as Raven put it, a dime-store magic machine, shoddily made with frog's eyes where the eyes of newts should have been used, and forged with bronze instead of gold alloy. In other words, it couldn't keep sucking in energy indefinitely…

Noel found Bertrand, Walker and his men, Ember, Johnny 13, and Kitty all fighting off a horde of Minotaur. Dorathea was helping Desiree battle one of the Wraiths, which put Savior's heart a little at ease.

He discharged all the energy currently in the artifact into one of the minotaur, destroying it, even as he sucked in the energy from the rest, making them easy to smash…

"Thanks for the help," Johnny said. Savior glanced at him again when he realized his voice and appearance were darker than normal—like the Prince in the second 3D _Prince of Persia_ game.

"Actually, I've come here to bid you all good riddance."

The ghosts stared at him for a minute, and then, Ember finally broke the silence. "What?" she spat.

"Danny can't do this without helping the ghost meet his goal, and this artifact won't hold out forever. I'm going to use your energy to strike down Future once and for all. I'd rather lose a bunch of criminal ghosts than have the world come to an end."

"TRAITOR!" Bertrand snarled, but it was Walker who attacked first, lunging at Savior with a bowie knife drawn from his side…

Savior activated the artifact and sucked the ghost warden in. "I'm not fond of having to do this myself, but don't mistake that for emotional cowardice," Noel growled.

A nearby thud alerted them all to the fact that Danny had just been batted out of the sky; he slammed into the ground and bounced a few times before rolling to a stop near Savior.

The Titan facepalmed. "Great."

"What do you think you're doing?" Danny asked as he stood up on shaky legs. "The truce…"

"Doesn't apply to me," Savior said. "As your 'friends' are so fond of reminding us."

"What are you trying to do?" Danny asked, his voice growing dangerous, though far to weary to dissuade Savior.

"He wants to use us as ammo against that freak!" Bertrand said. "But there's no guarantee even our ghost forms will survive that!"

Danny goggled, then narrowed his eyes, furious. "Noel, you can't do that."

"You only help him with every bit of power you expend, Danny!" Noel shot back. "It's either them, or the entire universe!"

"Then let the universe rot!" Ember shouted. "I'll find all the popularity I need in the Ghost Zone!"

"There may not BE a Ghost Zone if the universe ends," Savior said tersely. "I'm sorry, Danny, but there's no choice."

"There's always a choice!" Danny growled, diving at Savior. But a shimmer line lanced out and smashed the weakened Phantom to the ground.

"Yes," Noel whispered. "And this is it. When you get older, maybe you'll understand."

He pressed the button on the artifact again, and the energy beam that absorbed the ghosts lanced out into the crowd—all of them unable to dodge or fight back**...  
**

* * *

And then the artifact exploded as a brilliant pink bullet slammed into it.

What was left of Walker sprayed all over the battle field, even as everyone present craned his neck to see who had fired the shot.

"I think they might want a second opinion," Skulker said, holstering his pistol and pulling out a very large baseball bat.

And behind him, Technus and Wulf glared at Savior angrily.

"Consider this payback," Technus said, even as Skulker, his future partner in crime, raised the bat and smashed Savior halfway across the battlefield…

Wulf hovered down and helped Danny to his feet. "What you see in him?" the werewolf ghost asked.

Danny rubbed his head pursed his lips. "Anymore, I'm not sure. I can't believe…"

Skulker narrowed his eyes at Danny. "Now that the ectohol has worn off and I'm thinking clearly, I realize this is far more important than getting even more drunk. So what was that spiel about you having to hold back against a ghost this powerful?"

"Savior—he said that the Ghost is using the power from this battle to pull off his plan, and that it had something to do with my halfa-status."

Skulker and Technus gave each other a knowing look, and blasted off, tearing through the forces. Wulf made sure Danny was okay, and then did the same.

* * *

A last-second Shimmer barrier had prevented Savior from receiving any broken bones from Skulker's attack… And nevertheless, Savior found himself cursing as he sailed across the way. He almost went off the platform into the abyss below, but was able to get a Shimmer strand into one of the pylons and pulled himself up…

Right next to The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.

"Happy holidays." Noel said, staring up at Future with his icy blue eyes.

Future raised a hand and summoned his scythe, but then Savior began talking. "You'd love that, wouldn't you? To kill me? Send Danny into a fit of rage—then he'd unleash his power and you'd have more than enough to finish your plan."

The Ghost seemed surprised when Savior finished, and the delay was just long enough for Noel to jump away from a swing of the scythe and into a sea of crystalline creatures. Noel fought his way through them as best he could, but the Ghost entered the fray as well, grabbing Savior by his shirt and pulling him up close.

Savior struggled against this grip, but the bony hands were surprisingly strong, and Noel could do nothing to break free…

Unless... _Well, it's worth a shot. _Savior pulled his foot back and kicked Future as hard as he could manage in the groin. And then fell flat on his butt as the Ghost dropped him, his eyes, hidden in the darkness, flaring red with the pain.

"One day the villains are going to learn to wear a cup," Savior deadpanned, even as he turned tail and ran like a madman. It wasn't fast enough—Future hurled a fireball that barely missed Noel, but the explosion of which sent him flying through the air…

Right into Desiree, who he bounced off of, falling and slamming his head into the ground. He fell unconscious.

* * *

Danny blasted towards the remaining Wraiths and crystalline creatures, the newly-reinforced party of his ghostly enemies right behind him, tearing into the forces as Danny attacked the Wraiths themselves, trying to obey Savior's admonishing to hold back as best he could.

Though mostly it was causing him to get his face pounded three ways from Sunday.

The Sizzle Wraith smashed him into the ground with flaming hands. Danny pulled himself out of the crater he'd made... Only to see the Wraith hovering over him, smirking with the same self-righteous smirk he'd seen so many times on Sizzle. He felt his blood boil—not at the departed-for-hell/oblivion/whatever Sizzle… but at the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come for intentionally trying to push his buttons this way…

For honestly, if not to anger him, what other reason would he have made one of the Wraiths this particular person? And the sad irony was, it still had his intended effect, perhaps amplified now that Danny knew the reason…

So he smashed his fist into the Wraith's face, sending her flying across the platform, straight towards Future. But the Ghost didn't panic—it just created its scythe and sliced the Wraith open, releasing the energy it had absorbed from Danny and the others into the machine.

And the ball of energy above the claw flashed, coalescing into a solid ball where it had been a maelstrom of energy before**.  
**

* * *

Desiree had dragged Noel to safety before he finally woke up, rubbing his spiky white hair as though it was the hair and not his head that hurt. But the Titan would not be put down for the count so easily, and he was ready to resume fighting, when Desiree pulled him aside. "Look!"

Savior watched as Danny retaliated against the Wraith that looked like Sizzle, smashing her across the room, and he watched as Future sliced the Wraith open and let out all the energy it had gathered into the machine—not to mention the ambient energy Danny's punch had released.

"I told him to hold back!" Noel cursed. "Stupid rookie, he's going to play right into Future's plot…"

"He's using the power that Vlad Plasmius calls Primmortal to power his machine," Desiree observed. "But what if Danny had a different source of power?"

"Yeah, good luck with that. If I could just wish he had a psychic connection to ever ghost in the Ghost Zone for the next, say, three or so hours, I would. But do you see any genies around? Any Personal Deus Ex Machinas or Fairy Godparents?"

Noel rubbed his hair again, as though he thought he might be missing an important detail but wasn't sure what.

"Did you really hit your head _that _hard, kid?" said Desiree sarcastically.

Savior turned and looked up and down the former harem-girl… "Wait… You're a…"

Desiree nodded. "And not because you deserve it, filthy human, but because I am compelled: So you have wished, so shall it be!"

Hands raised, Desiree sent her magic out and into Danny Phantom, altering his mind—temporarily—into a transceiver of all things ectoplasmic and post-human.

Savior then noticed the ball of energy that the Ghost had been manipulated changed, and then bulged as though it was about to fire… And he looked straight up to see the 'sky' of the area changing, warping into some sort of time-portal…

"He's really going through with it!" Noel muttered. "He's trying to end Christmas by literally making the days of Christmas vanish…." Noel formed a megaphone with the Shimmer, and took a step closer towards the rookie. "_DANNY! STOP THAT BEAM!"_

Danny must have heard, because he instantly looked up and saw the beam of Negative Time lance out of the ball of energy and head straight for the time portal above them… And Danny took off, faster than Noel had seen even Superman ever fly, straight up the length of the beam and to the tip…

Where energy surrounded Danny Phantom, coursing into his fists as he raised them both, clasped together, and hammer-smashed the beam of Negative Time straight downward… And whereas a strike at an angle might have deflected it way from the intended target, the head on strike Danny delivered caused the beam to shatter, quanta of its energy blasting all across time and space—Noel blinked, amazed at the display, even as the chronoton particles passed through his body; he felt the scars he'd acquired in his years a hero literally vanish and he felt new ones appear in other places or the same place—he felt some of them twist, changing their angle of entry ever so slightly…

Danny was literally changing history with nothing but a punch, Savior realized…

_Yeah, that always ends up working** great** for everyone_, he thought.

But the explosion that sent waves through history was also too much for Danny to take, and the young hero hit the ground hard and did not get back up.**  
**

* * *

_A face…. Speaking…_

"_Ascend with your foe to where his descent began."_

* * *

The ghosts gathered round, even as Savior used the Shimmer to pull Danny's body from the divot he had made in the platform. Savior checked for a pulse, and found a faint one. But it was regular—he had just been knocked out… 

The rest of the Wraiths vanished, and all of Danny's loved ones were released. Though this wasn't admission of defeat, not by a long shot, from the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. It was a step towards a new strategy…

For the Ghost itself landed near Danny, picking him right out of Savior's arms and pulling the teen close…

Danny snapped awake as Future held them face to face… And with the wave of his arm, the ground transformed, a miniature version of the platform they were on rising out of the ground and using its claws to tangle Danny up within them…

And the more he struggled, the more energy the pylons drained, pulling it up into the larger pylons and rebuilding the ball of energy…

When Savior and the others tried to attack… Future batted them all away—even the powerful Wulf.

_That which I desireth, givest thou unto me!_

Danny struggled against the claws all the harder, the voice in his head causing him to squirm… But the more he struggled, the more energy vanished.

"Let go of me!" Danny shouted. "I…. I won't let you do this…"

Danny stopped struggling, and tried to let his mind fill up with peace… And suddenly realize that that was the problem—he couldn't focus his thoughts—he couldn't shut out thoughts…

Because his mind was literally _filled _with words and feelings, running through his head at the speed of light… "What are you doing to me?" He asked..

Future leaned back and looked perplexed, his head tilting forward towards Danny at first, and then scanning the rest of the ghosts…

"I can hear them all—every one of them… They're in my head." Danny said… "And…"

He closed his eyes, not trying any longer to block out all thoughts, but rather to filter through them. And buried underneath all the hustle and bustle, and all the fear of the Apocalypse, of which word must have spread fast in the Ghost Zone… Underneath all that, Danny found what he'd needed…

Hope.

A well of hope for the future, shared by all ghosts—and a hope for Danny in particular, the only one who could stop this…_ thing_ from ending the Truce forever.

"This is Christmas," Danny said with a wicked smirk, glaring up at Future, his eyes now aglow with white fire. "It wasn't a good idea to pick_ NOW_ to end the universe!"

And suddenly, an explosion of white fire consumed Danny, his miniature prison breaking open. The flames blasted Future backwards, his cloak catching fire as it stumbled back into a nearby pylon. With a wave of his scythe, it put the fire out… but now… it wasn't sure what to do.

But Danny was; the first thing he did was blast out his white flame in five directions, one burst of fire for each pylon on the claw platform… And all of them shattered, falling into the abyss below.

"This ends tonight, dude," Danny said. "Whether you like Christmas or not, you blow up a Hot Topic, nearly murder my friends and family, and try to use me to destroy the universe? That would tick nearly anyone off."

Phantom blasted forward, smashing his fist into Future's face. The ghost retaliated with his scythe, slicing into Danny with all his might and sending Danny careening the other way. But Danny stopped himself with a burst of Hopefire and shot straight up, hurling white fireballs at Future. But the ghost deflected them, charging at Danny and trying to force the teen to eat his scythe. Danny jerked the weapon out of Future's hand and kicked him in the stomach, then hurled him down at the platform.

Future opened a portal with his green flame, though, and appeared behind Danny, slamming a bony foot into Danny's back and sending him into the same crater he'd just pulled Danny out of. Then Future's hand glowed crimson as he smashed into the crater, hoping to hit Danny…

But through all the white flame pouring from the crater, Future missed, sending the energy scattering with an explosion that leveled half the arena and sent everyone else flying into the other platforms.

But even with the Hopefire gone, Danny was nowhere to be found…

Except right behind Future. Danny performed another hammer smash, this time sending Future flying off his own platform and into the abyss below….

Or so Danny had intended…

The platform below Danny flashed green and chunks of it exploded upwards, smashing into Danny even as Future himself burst from it, now covered in his trademark green fire. Future grabbed Danny by the shirt and hurled him into the ground, then picked him up and threw him into the air.

Danny deflected several punches, but let a powerful, bony right hook through his guard and into his abdomen, and spat up green blood. Danny returned the blow, blasting Future in the face with a burst of Hopefire and then launching himself backwards and assuming a battle stance…

But Future had also recovered, and was now allowing the green flame that he wielded to burn around him, making himself even more frightening than normal.

"Yeah, he's definitely going down as an Omega," Danny muttered.

Danny glanced over at Noel, who looked at him with a mixture of awe and disdain… Of course, never cutting the rookie a real break. Danny surrounded himself in Hopefire, and then focused it all into his fist. "New applications, huh?" he thought…

Danny hurled his fist straight back, letting the ecto-trail stretch like a cord, and then blasted straight towards Future, as fast as his powers would propel him… Until he got within a few feet. Then he let his arm snap back forward, and slammed into Future with an immense amount of power.

**_KRAKABOOM!_**

Green and white flames turned into a mushroom cloud of smoke and dust and confusion, and even as Dora inhaled and blew the smoke away, it was obvious Danny's attack had been devastating…

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come was doubled-over, holding his chest in agony and coughing up green ectoplasm.

And Danny knelt on the ground next to him, cradling his mangled mess of an arm…

"That wasn't too smart," Danny said aloud—then realized that it was someone besides him who had thought it. His mind was still receiving signals…

_"Did he do it? Did he win?"_

_"Is Danny Phantom gonna die? Can a halfa die!?"_

_"This is like some bad dream… some horrible nightmare…"_

"Dream.." Danny said aloud. "_'Ascend with your foe to where his descent began.'"_

Danny stood up, cradling his arm, forcing what was left of the Hopefire to straighten it out…

Future stood too, pulling out his scythe and lifting it to strike Danny down… Obviously the blow had taken a greater toll on Danny than it had its target… But Danny wouldn't let that stop him.

"You probably… Don't want to do that," Danny said, reaching deep into his well and causing more Hopefire to form around his body. Then he reached out and grabbed Future in a bear hug and flew straight up with him, the Hopefire cascading off of them.

_What doest thou!?_

"If your fire can tear open a portal, then so can mine!" Danny shouted, hurling a ball of white flame high above him, a flame that spread into a circle—which turned into a portal…

And just like that, both Danny and Future vanished**...  
**

* * *

Noel glanced at Dorathea, who begrudgingly transformed back into a Dragon and allowed Noel to hop on her back. They took off, all of the ghosts gathered, into the portal Danny had opened… And it closed behind them, even as the realm built from scratch by the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come collapsed into nothing…

* * *

The Dreaming—a realm from where all human dreams originate.

Danny didn't know how he'd learned of it, or what had possessed him to go here—but when he'd heard the word dream in the thoughts of the ghosts around him… He had somehow _known_ that was where they had to be..

All across the dreamscape, scenes of snow and presents flickered in and out of existence; scenes of a far away manger in Bethlehem, scenes of mistletoe and roasting chestnuts…

The dreams of Christmas.

But Danny and Future battled through this realm, terrorizing the dreams of adults and children alike, until Danny was pinned in the snow, the Ghost's blade at his throat. It raised the blade to plunge it through Danny's neck, when Wulf's claws tore into it and Noel smashed Future in the back with a powerful kick.

Future turned to see the rest of the party all aiming various instruments of pain directly at him.

"NO!" Danny said. "I can handle this!" The teen hero kicked up, smashing his foot into Future's stomach and kicking him over his head. Danny flipped over into kneeling position, and lunged at the ghost again, shoulder ramming him towards a distant black wall, writhing with all sorts of evil things—Greed and Lust and Stress and Selfishness…

Everything Savior hated about Christmas, Danny realized…

And when Danny slammed Future into the wall, his dark cloak grew longer, his eyes, deep within the darkness of his cloak, shined brighter. It was as though the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come was being empowered by the very things that Christmas was _not _supposed to be about.

And he struggled greatly against Danny, trying to force them away from the wall, as if anywhere, anywhere but beyond it was preferable…

"What's behind this wall you don't want me to know about?!" Danny demanded. "Is it the reason you exist? Is it the source of this curse? Is it where you hide all your bad deeds so 'Santa' can't see them?"

Future's eyes burned red…

But even as they did, music began playing from around them… The songs of Christmas, running through the dreams. Herald angels sang, and the Whos down in Whoville loved Christmas a lot.

And Danny found that it only added to the power of the Hopefire… "I could learn to like this realm," he said to himself. Then he narrowed his eyes at Future… "Now what is on the other side of this WALL!?"

Danny shouted the last word, even as he dilvered a powerful punch with his unwounded left arm, smashing the ghost through the wall of sin and into a new place…

An overwhelming place that Danny could only describe… "It's like… Pure concentrated Christmas Spirit…. Ugh, who writes this garbage?"

The fourth wall collapsed, allowing Savior and the rest to come in.

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come staggered backwards and fell to his knees. The burning in his eyes went out, and he trembled, the psychic energies of the realm overwhelming him…

"It's like there's nothing here but joy," Ember said… "No greed or malice… Just goodwill towards men and all that stuff."

Danny hovered over to Future and knelt in front of him on one knee. "This is where you come from? How could something so evil come from a place like this?" he asked…

"Evil?" a new voice asked. "No… he's not evil. Insane, maybe… But not evil."

Everyone turned to see a young woman standing, her stark white skin contrasting with her black clothing and hat. An ankh dangled from a chain on her neck. "You.." Danny watched as she came over and knelt by the Ghost, and began talking to him—talking like an old friend.

"I was afraid of this from the beginning," Death said. "I guess in retrospect I kind of foolish to think a human mind could handle this sort of thing. Are you ready now? To go on to the next world?"

Future looked up at Death and nodded.

"Then we will consider the deal terminated," she said with a sad smile. "Good bye."

And with that, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come… simply vanished.

Death turned and smiled at Danny. "I told you we'd meet again someday. Thank you, for bringing him here."

"You released him from his curse?" Danny said…

"Curse?" Death said, taken aback. "No, no, it was never a curse. It was a blessing, though one I don't think he ever fully understood. Perhaps I should start from the beginning."

"Please do," Savior said. "As… I really detest being this confused."

Death nodded. "I suppose after all you've gone through I owe you this much. You see, centuries ago, when Christmas was first starting out, there was a man, a powerful sorcerer, who truly loved the holiday. Though, he wasn't so much fond of it for the aspects related to the birth of Christ as he was the general goodwill towards men part.

"And incredibly, though he was but a mortal, he found a way to contact me. He pleaded with me that, if I spared him from dying—for as long as Christmas was celebrated—he would be its eternal guardian. _And so he became the guardian of Christmas, a patron saint even before there was a Saint Nick…_

* * *

_And well, you know the rest of the story._

As Death finished her tale, everyone shook their heads, even the vilest of those gathered. For in the realm they were in, the pure Christmas Spirit outweighed their own evil enough for them to see the tragedy. Honest.

"But how did I know to take him here?" Danny asked.

Death smiled. "It's a good thing Morpheus is no longer Dream. I asked my brother Daniel, the current lord of dreams, to send you a message while you were unconscious. I figured that this was the only place that could shock him back to sanity long enough for me to release him. There was no way I could just cancel the contract—my end was signed in blood and stamped by my boss."

"Your boss?" Danny asked.

"Do I really have to spell it out for you?"

Danny laughed. "I guess not."

"If everyone has closure now, I'm going to head back home now. I… still have a lot to do even tonight."

Everyone gave Death a somber nod, even as The Dreaming faded around them, and everyone found themselves back in the banquet hall of Dorathea's castle—even Spectra, who'd managed to regain some semblance of a humanoid appearance…

"Does it bother anyone else that we essentially just killed the guardian spirit of Christmas?" Noel asked.

"No, not really, no," was the general consensus of the ghosts present.

Danny patted him on the back. "Relax, Savior. Christmas doesn't _need_ a guardian spirit. If anything it just needs bitter people—like us—to quit pouting about all the bad and help make it good."

"Easy for you to say, rookie," Noel muttered. Noel looked down at his watch. "Danny, it's 11:39. You'd better get home soon. I'm sure Jump is falling apart without me. Or at least the Tower is."

"Always the egotist," Danny said with a smirk.

Ten minutes later, Danny had flown Savior out of the Ghost Zone and through the Fenton Portal, at which point he told the Titan he was on his own if he wanted to get home before Christmas. "Which starts in ten minutes, technically," Savior said**.  
**

* * *

"You just watch!" Jack shouted. "Santa will be here tonight and I'll be there to photograph it."

"Jack, please, grow up; you know as well as I do that reindeer would _freeze to death_ at those altitudes."

"Lies, lies I say!" Jack said, and covered his ears… And nobody noticed Jazz or the Phantom Child phasing into her body…

"What does it matter, guys?" 'Jazz' said as she walked into the room. "I say you need to stop arguing year in and year out and tormenting me—I mean Danny. Me… and Danny."

"Jazz, are you okay sweetie?" Maddie asked…

"Your eyes look a little green." Jack observed.

"Um… They've always been that way," 'Jazz' lied. "Look… Why do we need a jolly fat elf being the guardian of Christmas? Santa isn't even the reason we celebrate anyway, is it?" 'Jazz' thumbed to the Nativity relief on the mantle above the fireplace that the Foleys had given them last year. "Please, just lay off…"

And invisibly, again without being noticed, the Phantom kid slipped into Jack, then Maddie, both fooling the other into thinking they agreed**...  
**

* * *

Tuesday saw the end of the Christmas season and the count down to the end of the year. Jazz was still mad at Danny for being used the way she was, but Danny didn't really think she'd stay that way.

Meanwhile, Sam and Tucker were over, enjoying their time out of school with their Superhero best friend. And Sam was happier than Danny had seen her in a long time. "How ironic is it, really, that all it took was a little 'suggestive' overshadowing to stop an argument that's gone on for nearly 20 years?"

Tucker smirked. "Only slightly less ironic than the fact that, in the end, Danny's dad was right about Santa Claus existing."

"Don't remind me, and don't ever let him know," Danny said. "Or the argument will start all over again. Meanwhile…"

Danny sat down at his computer, and opened up a file for his latest foe. "'The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come…'" Danny typed. "'Class… Omega.' Threat? 'Neutralized.'"

"Then that's that," Sam said. "Wanna go grab a shake at the Nasty Burger? My treat."

"Sure," Danny said with a shrug. "Why not? Not ever year you get to save the universe on Christmas Eve with someone who dreads Christmas as much as I always have."

"Speaking of you-know-who," Sam said. "Did you get Savior anything for Christmas? It would only be nice after all you put him through."

Danny smiled and put his hands behind his head. "Oh yeah, I sent him something."

"That smirk is really creeping me out dude," Tucker said as they left the house.

"I know." Danny continued to smile**.  
**

* * *

**24 Hours Earlier... **

"Friend Noel!" Starfire cheered gleefully, "may I inquire as to what the Danny Phantom got you for Christmas?"

"Yeah, dude," Beast Boy said. "The world is dying to know. Okay, so not really, but I am!"

Savior muttered something unintelligible and handed Starfire his gift from Danny. "It's an autographed photo of Dennis Leary."

Starfire didn't quite get a hold on his gift, and it fell to the floor where Beast Boy clambered over and read the words out loud, and then began rolling on the floor laughing:

_To Noel, the guy who embodies the Spirit of my most famous song – Dennis. Merry Christmas, Noel!_

**Fin. **

* * *

_And so it's done! With mere moments to spare until Christmas Day on the East Coast. Merry Christmas everybody, and I hope you enjoyed this thing!_


End file.
